Two neighborhood controversies landed in front of the City Plan Commission on Wednesday night. The board voted in favor of the Whalley laundromat and against the dominos club.
In other matters, the commission briefly addressed bike rack donations and touched on the question of “What is Art?”
A plan to open a 40-washer laundromat in the Walgreen’s plaza on Whalley avenue met with vociferous opposition at the previous week’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The proposal requires City Plan approval of the number of parking spaces involved, which it received on Wednesday night.
“This is a hot one because some people didn’t like the laundromat,” said Commissioner Ed Mattison. “But that issue is not before us.”
As at the BZA meeting, the appropriateness of a laundromat at the location (pictured) was not up for discussion, since it is an approved use under the current zoning. The issue is only whether there is enough parking. By the city’s method of calculation, there should be 12 parking spaces. The proposal includes 13.
“The rest of the stuff is not ours to consider,” Alderman Roland Lemar said.
The motion to approve the laundromat plan passed unanimously.
In the matter of the Caitano Social Club, a dominos club that proposes to open at 900 Grand Avenue, the issue was also parking. At the BZA meeting, the social club’s application for a non-profit liquor license was the hot issue, but that was not before the City Plan Commission.
The club seeks permission for joint-use parking for the parking lot near their building. However, during the BZA meeting, it came out that not all of the parking lot is part of the property, reducing the size of the available lot by 2000 square feet, or about one sixth.
City Plan head Karyn Gilvarg mentioned that it had also been “difficult to pin down” exactly how many people would be in attendance on any given night. She said that “at least half” of the neighbors voicing opposition at the BZA meeting had mentioned parking as a concern.
Lemar moved to deny the motion, listing the parking lot ownership issue, the lack of clarity about attendance numbers, and the neighborhood opposition. The board unanimously voted to deny.
Bikes and Art
In light of the recent gift of 13 bike racks to the upper state street, which required additional hardware to make them durable enough to be placed outside, the City Plan Commission approved an ordinance that will formalize the acceptance of bike racks given to the city by private donors. The ordinance includes standards for durability and appearance and regulates where the racks can be placed and states that they cannot include advertisements.
The commission also approved the placement of a piece of public art for the intersection of Front and Chatham streets, in Fair Haven. The sculpture, nicknamed the “Fair Haven Sharpie,” references the cultural and maritime history of the area. Similar to the bike rack situation, the commission plans to create guidelines for the acceptance of works of public art.
City Engineer Richard Miller said that the standards for public artworks should include maintenance, whether or not people can climb it, the presence of sharp edges. He also said that the guidelines should address the question: “What is Art?”