Parking Lot Follow-up

Just to give a follow up on my post regarding the parking lot on South Main Street.  I attended the BZA meeting last week.  Raubyn Barich, the homeowner to the south, did an excellent job of presenting her case against the proposed use.  She ended up finding a lot of the points I made previously here, plus some others that were quite good.

Despite the Plan Commission’s recommendation that the site plan be changed to angle parking in lieu of 90 degree parking, the Town Council and Redevelopment Commission decided to push for the 90 degree option.  This would have put the parking lot within 12″ of the Barich lot line leaving no room for a landscape buffer.  All they would have received was a 6′ fence on the lot line.  Seeing opposition to this from the BZA, the applicant modified the request to give a 7′ buffer.  Buffering such as shown to the right would have been better, both on the south and east, but that’s not going to happen…  A solid white fence is what planned, which won’t be attractive at all.  At this point that is all about dollars, so suggestions something more attractive with a staggered design or other interest is not being considered.  That’s unfortunate since this has become a municipal project.

Graphic Source:  Municode.com