SHELBURNE — Does Shelburne Falls really need more parking spaces? Of all the zoning bylaw changes proposed, how many parking spaces to require for new village development drew the longest discussion at a recent Planning Board public hearing.
While the Planning Board’s proposed zoning revision would require fewer parking spaces for single-bedroom/studio apartments and for new storefronts in the village, some questioned whether Shelburne Falls needed any more parking spaces at all.
Board Chairman John Wheeler pointed out that a 1989 parking study found that Shelburne Falls had enough parking, “but people weren’t using peripheral lots” such as the small public parking lot on Cross Street or the gravel lot below Deerfield Avenue, behind the old Mole Hollow Candle building.
“Since then,” Wheeler pointed out, we’ve lost three manufacturers — Mayhew Steel, Lamson and Goodnow, Mole Hollow — and about 200 jobs. Wheeler questioned why more parking would be needed now, when fewer people are working and parking in Shelburne Falls.
Buckland’s Jon Wyman, project manager for Vreeland Design Associates, said the old Singley Furniture Building made do with the available parking in the village. But if the current owners want to tear down the decaying building and rebuild within that building footprint, the town’s zoning would require them to provide 10 more parking spaces for the retail shops and about five more parking spaces for apartment dwellers on the second floor.
“If Singley’s 15 parking spaces kill that project,” said Michael Parry of the Zoning Board, “you would have a deteriorating building just sitting there.”
“And if that (Singley) building wasn’t such a disaster,” added Planning Board member A. Campbell Stevenson, “they could put something in and we wouldn’t require extra parking.”
Selectman Joseph Judd pointed out that after a 2007 fire destroyed a 107-year old brick building at 33 Bridge St., the building owners had to buy more land, to fulfill parking requirements before they replaced the damaged building with a new one.
“Is it better for the streetscape of the town to have a little parking lot right in the middle of buildings downtown?” asked Molly Cantor, who is hoping to redevelop the former Swan Building lot into a pottery studio and gallery, possibly with an apartment on the second floor. Cantor got a ZBA waiver that reduced her parking space requirements to just four spots — providing she didn’t add an upstairs apartment to her plans.
“If Molly had at least one wall of the Swan Building (to build upon), she wouldn’t have to have more parking,” Parry said.
Judd said he believes the Zoning Board of Appeals has been reasonable in trying to determine how to accommodate new development in the historic village center. But he said municipal parking — along Bridge Street, Deerfield Avenue and in the lot behind Keystone Market — “is at a premium.”
“We cannot lose any of our municipal parking. Despite what anyone thinks, there is a parking problem downtown,” he said. “At some point, we have to create parking, because we want to be pro-business. Also, we have to have some input from the police and highway departments.” Judd is hoping the town will be awarded a $15,000 grant for a parking study, to determine the impact of apartment dwellers on available municipal parking. Judd said more apartments would be a good thing, but would require additional parking — so that tenants aren’t garaging their vehicles in parking spaces used by businesses, customers and visitors.