Good Evening Everyone -- Town Council tonight voted to give first approval to Boulevard Phase II. Only Gary Santos and Paul Gawrych voted against approval, which calls for an additional 105 apartment units along with a second parking garage on the corner of King and Pherigo streets. As many folks know, Boulevard Phase I has proven a disaster for the residents who live along King Street. Phase I was built with only one parking space per unit, even though the complex has two- and three- bedroom units. That coupled with the fact that the complexs owners now charge for parking has led other Boulevard residents to opt not to pay the fee and instead park along the nearby residential streets. If you havent been down King Street early in the morning or at night, its worth doing so just to see the eyesore and frustration our Town government has created. One thing that was revealed Tuesday night was that, in an effort to remedy this parking fiasco, the Boulevards owners are trying to lease the empty lot behind GDC in order to park as many as 150 cars. Residents who live along Ellis Street now face the very real prospect of having to look out on what amounts to a used-car lot. What this all means is that problems with the Boulevard will now negatively affect what amounts to two blocks of existing residential areas -- none of whose owners signed up for any of this nonsense yet all of whom are going to suffer added frustrations, and, no doubt, decreased property values. Furthermore, once complete, Boulevard Phase II will sit just ten feet back from the property line. That means that residents on King and Pherigo streets will have to look across their yards at the 40-foot facade of an apartment building that is further encroaching into the existing residential areas. What I found amazing sitting through tonights meeting was how Town Council members seemed to miss the forest for the trees. Several of them talked about the frustration residents are rightly feeling over the parking, but no one addressed the bigger issue -- specifically that these problems are the result of our Town leaders flawed vision. The concept behind the Boulevard was that residents would live, work and play all in the same place. People would trade in their cars for bikes and walking shoes -- that, of course, was the rationale behind only requiring one parking space per unit. What we are seeing, however, is that our Town planners and elected leaders were wrong. People still need their cars to get to work, the store and the beach. But without enough parking spaces, surrounding residents are the ones who now suffer. To their credit, the developers behind Phase II have realized the parking problems -- largely because they cant rent the remaining units without parking -- and are planning to add three spaces for each new unit. That will help bring the overall average up -- across both phases -- from one space per unit to 1.5 spaces. Some Town Council members, who voted to approve Phase II, argued that they werent happy with it, but that the project was now needed because the added parking spaces would help offset the problems caused by Phase I. Its unfortunate that our Town leaders have allowed themselves to land in this position. It reminds me of the childrens story where the woman swallowed the spider to catch the fly, and so on and so on. In order to solve the problems, we risk making them worse. As for the parking, Town Council voted, as part of tonights approval, to require the developer to first install a raised sidewalk on King Street in an effort to remedy the parking problems there. In other news, several residents spoke out against the proposed parking garage at the corner of Mill Street and Coleman, including Jimmy Bagwell and Jim Owens. Thank you to them and others for keeping a spotlight on that very important issue. If you have not yet gotten a Save Shem Creek bumper sticker, there are about 50 left in our mailbox at 506 Royall. More are on the way. Lastly, Channel 4 was there tonight and interviewed Janie (Hindman) Yeargin and a couple of her brothers. The story should be on tonight at 11 p.m. Check it out! Thanks so much everyone, and have a good night. Best, James Scott
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:54:58 +0000
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