The Off-Street Parking Commission discussed last night increasingly competing demands for parking in the downtown area and how to address that concern.
The discussion was initiated by communication from the Planning Board regarding a project to convert under utilized second-floor commercial space. FRP Holdings Westfield, LLC, was granted approval to convert commercial space at 24 Main St., to a residential use. Six apartments will be created through that conversion. Zoning requires two parking spaces per unit, meaning that the conversion project, now underway, would require the developer to provide 12 spaces. FRP, a real estate company controlled by Rocco Falcone, the owner of Rocky’s Ace Hardware Store at 44 Main Street, which is part of the Main Street parcel, is seeking a waiver from the Planning Board for the site plan requirement, because the building is already existing.
FRP plans to address its parking requirement through shared parking for five of the required spaces at Rocky’s, through five spaces it controls inside the Thomas Street parking lot and through an in-lieu of payment to the city for two of the spaces. City ordinance code, (Article III, Section 3-100.5, Special Regulations for Multiple-family Dwellings, paragraph 3) does allow the Planning Board to approve a special permit requiring the payment of $2,500 per space to the city.
Yesterday’s discussion focused on the pressure that arrangement, approved by the Planning Board, will put on availability of parking in the Thomas Street lot.
Parking Commissioner Brian Hoose said that the residential redevelopment project might actually result in greater pressure on those municipal lots, depending on the type of tenants renting the apartments. More parking spaces would be used if the apartments are rented to college students than if they were rented to families with children.
“Five of those apartments will have three bedrooms and 1 apartment will be a two bedroom, so they will need at least 17 spaces,” he said.
“We’re gobbling up more and more parking spaces that are needed for businesses and their customers,” Hoose said. “No high-end store will come downtown when they look at the demographics and see there is no parking for employees and customers.”
“The idea is to bring business downtown to generate jobs, to generate tax revenue, so we need to do anything we can do to preserve parking for downtown business,” he said.
Parking Commission Chairman Peter J. Miller Jr., who also represents Ward 3 on the City Council, said that he sees both sides of the issue.
“I’m 100 percent on-board to get more people living downtown, but we need more parking,” Miller said. “I don’t know how we got to this point where they own those spaces. Why weren’t they taken through eminent domain when the lot was reconstructed?”
“I know that the city wants to be friendly to residential development downtown because 17 more residents means 17 more customers doing business downtown,” he said.
Hoose also raised the issue that, if FRP owns the five spaces, did it contribute to the cost of refurbishing the Thomas Street lot.
“Did they kick back money for the lot improvements, if it’s their property?” Hoose asked.
Hoose also questioned if the city will be responsible for maintaining and plowing those five private spaces with taxpayer money and what liability the city is exposed to by residents walking through the municipal lot between the dedicated parking and apartments.
Miller suggested that the board request an opinion from the Law Department “to protect ourselves. Is there an easement requirement, something for liability protection for the city?”
That motion was approved by a 5-0 vote of the commission.
