As Chickahominy is redeveloped, eyes are turning to on-street parking.
At the April 4 Greenwich Planning & Zoning commission meeting an application to pave a parking lot in the back yard of 140 Hamilton Avenue was approved, but not as requested.
Before the property sold to the applicant Michael Rocco in Jan 2022, the previous owner chopped down all the mature trees in the back yard.
At the previous P&Z meeting in March, P&Z chair Margarita Alban pressed the applicant to retain some of the back yard to have green space and better drainage.
The applicant’s rep, architect Paul Hopper, initially said the parking lot would be for customers of the building’s ground floor liquor store, Rock Wine & Spirits, but the commission cited regulation 6-137 which restricts commercial access across from a residential area.
Further, they noted the proposed 23-foot curb cut on Charles Street required for commercial parking would eliminate 2 on-street parking spots.
Sec. 6-137. BUSINESS ACCESS. No entrance to or exit from a business or industrial use shall be located on any street frontage opposite a residence zone where the lot containing the business or industrial use has frontage in a business zone.
The building is in the LBR-2 zone and has had non-conforming parking for 100 years: There are 0 parking spaces. To conform would require 13 spaces.
At the April 4 meeting, the applicant again sought the 8 space parking lot despite the commission having suggested a compromise of 4 spots solely for the use of tenants.
The building has three two-bedroom apartments upstairs over the liquor store, and one studio apartment on the ground floor.
Mr. Hopper said the landlord, who is also the proprietor of the liquor store, would monitor the parking lot to ensure only tenants use it.
Commissioner Nick Macri questioned how that might be achieved.
“If I was living in the building, left for the day and then came back, there is a likelihood someone who is maybe in the store is parked in one of the spaces I’m supposed to be in,” Macri said.
“Even though we’re saying it will be strictly controlled, unless there is actually a physical gate with a key, somebody’s going to be there that is not supposed to be there,” he added.
Macri also suggested the landscaping plan was inconsistent with the new landscaping regulation, and recommended the addition of a fourth canopy tree in a parking lot to provide shade and mitigate “the sea of asphalt.”
The plans as presented showed three Birch Trees and a row of arbor vitae.
Commissioner Bob Barolak recommended labeling the parking spots as belonging to residential tenants or giving tenants orange cones.
The only public comment was from Joe Pecora, a local developer who lives in the neighborhood, wo thanked the applicant for the parking lot.
“We found that allocating parking spaces per unit actually limits parking,” he said. “We use a technique that’s worked for us, that ‘Violators will be towed at the owner’s expense.'”
“I understand that people talk about the tight parking in Chickahominy. At the same time I continue to be concerned about the fact that we are never going to get green space back if we lose it,” said P&Z chair Alban. “What we give up is gone forever once we pave it over.
Alban said the commission had received two letters from the public.
“One says we’re too car-conscious and should consider greenspaces and the other says, ‘Yeah, make more parking,'” Alban added. “And, of course we have Mr. Pecora.”
The first motion, for an 8-space parking lot, failed to carryin a vote of three (Barolak, Levy, Yeskey) to two (Alban and Macri).
There was a discussion about a compromise.
“To me, in this particular neighborhood – as much as I’m a fan of greenspace too – parking is more important than greensapce,” Barolak said. “I think this neighborhood would be benefiting more by 8 parking spaces than from a tiny bit of greenspace that isn’t going to be used.”
Alban disagreed.
“When I get stopped on the street people don’t say to me, ‘Oh, can you make more off-street parking and pave stuff and make more parking lots?’ People never say that. They say, ‘Why are you letting everybody tear down our trees and our green?’ That’s what I hear.”
Still she said she was willing to compromise.
A motion was proposed for a parking lot with 6 spots with signage indicating the spots are for residents only, and allowing for more of a landscape buffer along Charles Street.
There was language that the curb cut must be discussed with Highway Division with an eye to being reduced as much as possible, and that a landscaping plan be signed off by staff.
The vote was anonymous 5-0.