Laconia Eye Associates move to business park clears a hurdle

Laconia Eye Associates last night received a necessary "special exception" to the town zoning ordinance to allow it to build a medical facility in the Lakes Business Park. The vote by the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) was unanimous.

Engineer Steve Smith, representing Drs. Douglas Scott and Andrew Garfinkle, the principals of Laconia Eye Associates, told the zoning board a single story building of more than 10,000-square-feet is proposed for a 2.29-acre lot on the west side of Hounsell Avenue, at the top of the hill that slopes down to Jewett Brook. The site is surrounded on three sides by conservation land that was built-in to the development scheme.

Phase II of the Lakes Business Park lies in Gilford but is owned by the City of Laconia. It is however, being developed jointly by the two municipalities under the direction of the Laconia/Gilford Economic Development Authority. The park is subject to Gilford zoning regulations.

Those regulations were amended in 2005 to permit medical facilities by special exception so long as the building are at least 10,000-square-feet in size and people are only served on a out-patient basis. Controversy had erupted when a proposal to sell a lot to a dental practice was brought forward by the development authority, shortly after it was formed. Some town officials argued the town had invested in developing the park on the grounds the lots would be used to attract industry and good jobs to the area and that mission was being ignored right out of the gate. The minimum square footage requirement for medical facilities was added to the ordinance as a compromise.

In August, Smith appeared before the Planning Board — which will still have to approve a site plan for the project — and asked in the square footage requirement could be met by having the doctors use 7,000-square-feet and lease out the balance. The answer he got was "yes".

Smith said the site plan he showed last night had won the unanimous approval of the development authority — which also has jurisdiction — on Oct. 18. There was some comment that the amount of parking shown on the plan seemed excessive but Smith said it was the minimum number of spaces that must be provided. He added that the doctors were not at all unhappy about the parking requirement because their practice attracts lots of cars and that reality posses a problem at their current Lakes Regional General Hospital campus location.

There are 19 lots in Phase II of the business park. Assuming site plan approval, the Laconia Eye Associates building will be the second one constructed. Earlier this year, F.W. Webb, a wholesale distributor of plumbing, hearing and cooling products, moved into a new 40,000-square-foot facility.