Parking concerns don't stop approval
Published on September 27th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - Despite an entrenched neighborhood outcry, the town's Selectmen granted a local restaurateur permission on Tuesday to redevelop a burnt-out Main Street shopping plaza into a 50-seat Italian food eatery with two adjoining retail suites.
According to attorney Steven Cicatelli, who represents the P & V Belesis Realty Trust, his client was hoping to convert two of the four retail suites at 491-499 Main Street into a sit-down, family style eatery that offers both a full-bar and regular nightly entertainment.
The Main Street retail space, located across the street from Andrea's Pizza and the South School, was ravaged nearly two-years ago by a fire that started in a former nail salon establishment.
While residents abutting the commercial building admitted the burnt-out husk of a structure was an eyesore, they had one overwhelming concern: the 50-seat eatery would only have one parking space. Under the town's zoning bylaws, the combination of uses require that such uses have 23-spaces, when the total square footage is taken into account.
"I'm an abutter to that establishment. Actually, I'm more like a kissing-cousin," Gerry Street resident Fred Kranefuss said. "I don't want my street turning into a parking lot. All the abutters pay taxes and we want to be protected, as we should be."
"I do have serious concerns with the parking. There's not enough parking for neighbors as it is. Just in the past few weeks, I had a tractor trailer parked right in front of my house and my neighbor's house," another neighbor, who didn't identify herself, added.
According to Cicatelli, the applicant had committed to providing free-of-charge valet parking to his patrons, a service that his client volunteered to provide during a recent Zoning Board hearing on the matter.
And while the attorney admitted that small retail uses would generate less of a demand on parking, he contended that the economics of the renovation dictated that a high-paying lessee, such as a restaurant establishment, be allowed to occupy the structure.
Although the Selectmen endorsed a site plan seeking to rebuild the commercial space over a year ago, the former proprietor had inadequate insurance coverage, and was unable to obtain enough funding for the project.
"Mr. Chairman, there are definitely some [traffic and parking] issues there. There is Andrea's Pizza and there's Bud's Sunoco," Cicatelli responded. "But the point is, we have a building and it can't stay this way. It's not like we're talking about virgin land here."
"We have no intention of having employees or patrons parking on Gerry Street or Benton Street. These people are in business. They don't want to irritate the neighbors. We're willing to put our money where are mouth is and agree to these [valet] conditions," the Main Street lawyer added.
Although several Selectmen, including Chair Bob Sweeney and member George Seibold - who was ultimately the lone dissenter in the subsequent 4-1 approval - similarly saw a potential problem, board members felt that adequate conditions could be attached to the approval to prevent a parking nightmare.
However, halfway through the two-hour discussion, the Selectmen ran into another roadblock, as Sweeney was passed a note from an audience member that hinted that a permit may not even be issued for the use.
Specifically, Building Inspector Cheryl Noble contended that the restaurant space itself, a little shy of 1300 square feet, might not be large enough to accommodate 50-seats - the minimum seating capacity required for a liquor license.
"There is a concern that the building department may have as to whether or not there's enough room for 50-seats," Sweeney announced after reading the note. "I'm absolutely puzzled as to why we're here if I just got this note in the middle of a site plan."
However, the Selectmen later approved the site plan shortly thereafter on the grounds that the seating issue would be better taken-up during a separate hearing on the liquor license.
But after taking a brief five-minute recess, the issue was barely breached, despite Noble's own admission that, "the plan that has been submitted to me is insufficient to determine whether that's an issue".
"I thought someone said there was an issue in fitting in 50-seats. You meet all the requirements?" Selectman Paul Rotondi asked Cicatelli, who maintained that the real issue was whether or not handicapped bathrooms were needed for the site.
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