Revised Colonial condo parking space proposal on council agenda

LACONIA — Dedicated parking spaces for residents of the Colonial Theatre condominiums are expected to be approved by the City Council on Monday.

Under the revised proposal, the reserved spaces have been moved farther back from the spaces that are closest to the nearby businesses. Also the term of the lease has been cut in half, City Manager Scott Myers explained.

Ten of the spaces will be in the so-called City Hall parking lot on Beacon Street East. The other eight spaces will be located in the lot between Main and Pleasant streets.

The leased spaces will be reserved for the exclusive use of the occupants of nine residential condominiums which are being developed as part of the multimillion-dollar Colonial restoration project.

The agreement also allows those spaces to be relocated to the downtown parking garage.

The city is looking to undertake a multimillion-dollar upgrade of the parking garage in hopes of getting more people to use the facility that is designed to accommodate 250 vehicles, but is now able to handle less than half that number because of safety issues caused by the structure’s deterioration..

In other business, the council is expected to give final approval of accepting Paradise Road and Colonial Drive in Weirs Beach as emergency lanes for three years. The designation will allow the city to perform basic maintenance on the two dirt streets as well as to plow and sand them during the winter as it has been doing since the late 1970s.