Georgie D's approved for Main Street site
Published on January 17th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - The proponents of a planned Main Street Italian eatery in South Stoneham satisfied the Selectmen's parking and seating concerns with the new restaurant on Tuesday night.
Pitching the proposed redevelopment to the Selectmen last September, local attorney Steven Cicatelli, of Stoneham's Cicatelli & Cicatelli, sought permission to rebuild the burnt out commercial retail complex at 491 to 499 Main Street.
Specifically, the local lawyer, representing the P & V Belesis Realty Trust, hoped to reutilize two of the four business suites to create a 50-seat, family style restaurant with a full liquor license.
Following-up on the conditionally approved eatery, dubbed Georgie D's, Cicatelli's counterpart, attorney Jim Juliano, Jr., contended that the applicants had met the Selectmen's requirements for both a signed agreement proving the existence valet parking and a floor plan showing that the 1,300 square foot space could accommodate enough seats for a liquor license.
Based upon Stoneham's bylaws, a restaurant must have at least 50-seats in order to obtain permission from the Selectmen to serve alcohol.
"On Sept. 26 of 206, this board approved a liquor license that was contingent upon two things," Juliano explained. "We do have a final floor plan showing 50 seats and in back is a signed lease [providing for] all the parking spots that are required."
During the site plan hearing last fall, a number of area residents, primarily from the Marble and Gerry Street areas, argued that the property in question would exacerbate an existing parking shortage in the surrounding neighborhood.
Specifically, the adjacent neighbors pointed to the proponent's own admission that Georgie D's, as well as the two other planned businesses in the vacant shopping plaza, would only have one on-site parking space to utilize.
The town's bylaws for the combination of retail uses would require a total of 23 vehicular spots.
However, according to Cicatelli, the applicants, who purchased the flame ruined commercial space after the former owner was unable to cover the renovation costs after a nail salon caught on fire over two-years-ago, needed a high generating lease such as a restaurant in order to cover building's rehabilitation expenses.
Admitting that parking in the area was limited at best, the local lawyer proposed that the restaurant provide off-site valet parking to prevent the types of space shortages nearby residents predicted.
And according to Juliano, the new restaurateur's had delivered as promised by securing an agreement for 17 parking spaces at 489 Main Street, a commercial property located right next door to the conditionally-approved eatery.
"I do believe this accommodates more than those 17 [spots]," the attorney said of the parking lot. "I believe the [location] is maybe one or two blocks before Marble and Main Streets come together."
"That was the purpose to getting someone close, so we didn't have cars coming down Main Street," Juliano added.
Although he voted for the site plan the first-time around, Selectmen Chair Robert Sweeney noted that recent correspondence from Building Inspector Cheryl Noble indicated that some of the spacing between tables on the floor plan still lacked adequate spacing, although by just a mere inches.
Making no quips about that fact, the Georgie D's representative asked the Selectmen to grant a waiver for that issue, arguing that the shortage only applied to a few tables, and only by a few inches in those cages.
"That is correct," Juliano said. "We do have a separation between tables, but there are only a few where we're a couple inches short."
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