2006-10-18 ad Hoc Parking Task Force Minutes

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Ad Hoc Downtown Parking Committee Meeting October 18, 2006 The meeting convened at 7:30 pm in the Town Hall Berger Room, 16 Lowell Street, Reading MA. Present were Chairman Gil Rodrigues (GIL); Vice Chairman Jack Russell (JR); Members George Katsoufis (GK), Torn Quintal (TQ), David Talbot (DT), Julie Thurlow (JT) and George Rio (GR). Also in attendance were Brad Latham, Michael Linnawc, Peter Simms, Anthony Patti, Richard Finlagen, Naomi Kaufman, Janice Jones and David Blake. 1. Minutes. The minutes from the meeting of September 20, 2006 were discussed and approved. 2. Sanborn property Proposed process Brad Latham gave a brief overview of Reading Co-Operative Bank's acquired Sanborn Street property characteristics and the Bank's need to use this property as a parking lot for its employees. Brad presented three options that the Bank can pursue: - Option 1: Rezone the parcel in question and place it in the Business B zoning district, as the property already abuts the Business B district. - Option 2: Create a special permit process that allows land that abuts the business district to be used for employee parking if certain protective criteria are met and if a special permit is issued by the CPDC. - Option 3: Create an employee parking overlay district (on the zoning map) with certain criteria and if Town Meeting allows a parcel to be placed in the overlay district, then a special permit would be required by the CPDC. The third option offers more control to the town over the future uses in a property. Proposed use JT: the Bank's objective is to take employee parking off of streets and put those cars in a gated parking lot. The town has a parking problem but hasn't programmed a garage. The businesses need to solve their parking needs, although they recognize that they must do so by also addressing the residents' concerns. DT: voiced a preference for a mixed-use development on site according to smart growth principles (downtown density, proximity to transit, etc.), instead of a blacktop dead space. GK: given the state/national forecast about an ever-increasing automobile usage, the committee needs to develop a broader understanding of the problem and be ready to consider the need for remote employee lots in several downtown locations. There is an end of November CPDC public hearing scheduled for the Reading Co-Operative Bank's zoning proposal, where this committee's position will be requested. Mixed-use options should be investigated as part of the new mixed-use downtown overlay zoning district.