Beer, beach, beckoning plans for the parking garage: Council approves extended serving hours and private beach sale

LACONIA — The Laconia City Council approved a permanent extension of alcohol sales until 2 a.m. at the Weirs during their first meeting of the year.

Monday night's meeting also saw the transfer of a private beach from the city to an association of owners who already had deeded access to it and a call for potential development proposals of the downtown parking garage, among other items.

Extended hour of alcohol sales

Councilors unanimously agreed to change the city code and allow alcohol to be sold in the Weirs until 2 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and during Motorcycle Week. 

Under state law, the Liquor Commission sets hours for alcohol sales at between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m.; businesses with a liquor license may sell alcohol until 2 a.m. if the local legislative body, in this case the city council, approves an ordinance allowing it.

In June, the council agreed to this same rule change on a six-month trial basis that ended on New Year's Day.

Both City Manager Kirk Beattie and Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney, whose district includes the Weirs, said Laconia Police reported no issues caused by the additional hour of sales.

Laconia Police Chief Matthew Canfield confirmed this in an interview and noted that even during the holiday season, when alcohol-related incidents typically spike, there was only one incident in the area requiring service.

“I’m stunned that there weren't any problems... It has been tame,” Cheney said. “At one point [Canfield] suggested to me that it might have been quieter than it had been in previous years... He tells me the merchants were cooperative and helpful. I think that’s all we can really ask for.” 

The push for an extra hour of sales came from Anthony Santagate, who owns Tower Hill Tavern and The Big House on Lakeside Avenue. Santagate has tried to get this ordinance changed before without success.

The trial period was proposed as a compromise by Mayor Andrew Hosmer in June: some councilors were unsure about whether the extra hour would amplify safety risks and noise pollution. Even with that compromise, Hosmer was the tie-breaking vote for approval.

Councilors at Monday’s meeting echoed their earlier praise for Santagate, complimenting his commitment to building growth in the Weirs and his ready cooperation with the city. Notably, councilors approved the long-term change to city code allowing for sales until 2 a.m. in a 5-0 vote, with Mark Haynes and Robert Soucy, who were against the trial period, voting in support. 

This showing of support from the city, Santagate said in an interview, “showed that we’re doing the right things down here... and it’s paying off.” 

Other businesses in the Weirs may take advantage of this rule change: the city can limit the rule to a specific area, but not to specific proprietors. While councilors spoke highly of Santagate as a business owner, if problems arise related to this change from any business, councilor Henry Lipman noted, the city can revisit the matter. Canfield said he was unaware of any other business owners intending to utilize the new rule.

When the trial period was approved in June, Santagate emphasized that he felt the extra hour would be an economic boon not just for his establishments but for the city broadly by helping local businesses get maximal interaction with seasonally fluctuating crowds. 

“The Weirs is becoming a destination spot,” Santagate said. He noted that in the future he plans to ask the city to allow for the later hour seven days a week. 

Sale of beach at Indian Path 

Nearly three months after it was last removed from, and then replaced on, the council’s table, the sale of a private beach was finally approved after residents involved in the sale came to an agreement. 

The city has been trying to sell the “unique property” at 20 Indian Path near Pickerel Cove on Paugus Bay for more than a year. City reports describe the property as “a deeded community beach lot for residents of Harglen Lane, Hillcroft Road, Bobby’s Way and limited properties on Hilliard Road” that was acquired by the city through tax deeding in 1994.”

Some residents, many of whom own property on Bobby’s Way, were concerned about the proposed sale to the Paugus Bay Beach Association, formed at the encouragement of the city to organize deeded residents and care for the beach. Those residents felt they had a different vision for the beach than the majority of the PBBA and formed their own group, the Indian Path Beach Preservation Association. 

Disagreement between the two parties about what upgrades might be made to the beach, such as a day dock or bathhouse, and how different interests for the beach should be balanced, led them to hire counsel and make lengthy public testimony before the council. 

The council tabled the sale multiple times, most recently in mid-October, asking residents with deeded beach access to come to an agreement in writing so that the council wasn’t forced to take sides. 

An agreement was reached, with added mediation from Cheney, in December.

“The concerns of both parties were addressed and there is an agreement that has been sent to the city manager that’s signed by the parties,” said Attorney Ethan Wood, who represented PBBA in this process. 

“It was a long road to get here,” said Bill McGrath of Bobby’s Way, who served as a street representative for his road during negotiations.

“There was a lot of effort put in by both sides, and we were able to find a good common ground.” McGrath expressed gratitude to the other street representatives and neighbors from all sides of the beach for their time and well-intentioned discussion. He also highlighted Cheney for mediating the agreement’s final push.

“I want to especially recognize his efforts on that because he spent a number of hours with the parties and managed to bring everyone to the table,” Wood said. 

Both McGrath and Wood recognized Cheney’s efforts in getting parties to return to the table. 

“We all saw the beginning of this,” Cheney said.

“We met over at the library for most of a Saturday, and these people worked it out. I didn’t do anything — they did a lot of grunt work getting it to us.”

“These were a bunch of citizens who wanted their beach,” Cheney continued.

“They worked their way through it and I can’t tell you how proud of them I am that they came to this agreement.” 

Downtown parking garage

The council also approved for release a call for expressions of interest from developers in the downtown parking garage. Late last year, Hosmer led the council in pumping the brakes on the city’s plans to renovate and revive it. Rather than demolish and rebuild the garage, the city would have covered a full rehabilitation.

The price tag on that project, though, kept climbing with inflation and supply chain interruptions. After a parking study commissioned by the city revealed that downtown, even at peak demand and with peak growth at peak times of year, would only be a few dozen spaces short without the garage’s spaces, Hosmer suggested that the council keep options open for the garage’s future.

“Wouldn’t it be in the best interest of the city — before we commit $6, $8, $10 million to a renovation — to at least get some sense of [whether] there [is] anyone out there that could take a look at this garage and have an innovative idea as to what they could do with it,” Hosmer said at a meeting in November.

Any renovation or redevelopment of the garage will be complicated: the city only owns the top two floors, while the ground floor, currently occupied by an array of commercial tenants, is privately owned. Because of structural dangers, the top floor of the garage has been closed for years.

Taking in development proposals does not bind the city to a sale, City Manager Kirk Beattie noted. Modeled after and similar to the call for expressions of interest that led to the sale of the former Holy Trinity School, Beattie said, “It was kept simple on purpose... It was, ‘Here’s a building, tell us what you want to do with it,’ and we’d see if anything positive came out of it.” 

The city’s call states that it will “entertain all proposals received and seek no minimum sale price threshold.” Potential developers will have until March 15 to submit proposals to the city.