LACONIA — The city is considering giving a portion of land currently used as a parking lot to a downtown development project, yet the proposal would result in a net gain of parking spaces. The matter will be given a public hearing by city council on Monday night.
The proposal has to do with the Pemaco Building, located on Main Street just south of the Pleasant Street parking lot owned by the city. The Pemaco Building was recently acquired by PEMACO Realty Holdings LLC. Sonya Misiaszek-Monterose, a principal of that company, is also one of the owners of the Laconia firm Misiaszek Turpin Architects.
Part of the development plan for the Pemaco Building, located at 622-632 Main St., involves a renovation to make space for three apartments, the architectural firm and other commercial uses. In order to do so, though, the developers would need to add an elevator, and they propose to construct it on the north side of the building which abuts a city-owned sidewalk that runs along the parking lot.
In order to construct the shaft for the elevator, the city would need to grant 621 square feet of space from the sidewalk and parking lot and give it to the project. However, as a result of a proposed redesign of the parking lot, which would reduce the number of entrances for the parking lot from two on Main Street to one, the city would realize a net gain of six parking spaces, both diagonal spaces on Main Street and one additional space in the redesigned parking lot.
Residents will have an opportunity to share their views on the proposal at a public hearing at the start of the meeting, and then city councilors will discuss the issue during the “unfinished business” portion of the meeting.
City Manager Kirk Beattie said even if council approves of the proposal, the land transfer would also need to be approved by the Planning Board, which reviews all boundary line adjustments.
The rest of the agenda can be seen at laconianh.gov/agendacenter. The City Council meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 23, at City Hall.
(1) comment
NO WAY!
This is not a proposal that helps the city or residents of Laconia in any way, the parking lot should be left alone and not allow some developer look for a way to make a buck while ruining the downtown parking area, I would hope all of the businesses in the area would push to not allow this foolish proposal.
I would think for future articles on this type of thing, it would be helpful for the Sun to publish a map of the proposed plan before and after.
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