By Carol McCracken (Post # 545)
Last night, the planning board approved a proposal by Opechee Construction Corp. for a two-level parking garage on the site of the former Jordan’s Meat plant. The approval was for 208 parking spaces. The first floor of 106 parking spaces will be accessed from Fore Street. The 102 space upper parking deck is accessed through a two-lane drive on Middle Street.
On July 13th, Mark Woglan, president of Opechee, appeared at a planning board workshop regarding his request for approval for a parking garage and townhouses yet to be built. At that workshop, he stated that he’d like to divide up the two proposals – dealing with the parking garage only and the townhouses at a later time t last nights meeting, only the parking garage was approved and the matter of the construction of the townhouses was left to a later date.
As on July 13th, board members again last night expressed concern as to just how long the city would have to wait for additional development on the rest of the land. It could be several years or it could be much longer – depending on when the economy recovers – or it could even be a different developer.
Two area landlords, Brent Adler and John Williams, expressed their frustration with more space being dedicated to parking in the vicinity. Planning board member Michael Patterson responsded: “The planning board does not dictate what is built. It’s up to the the developer.” Woglam said that his company is putting a lot of investment into the parking area that will not produce big income for the company.
The parking garage is expected to be completed the same time as the Hampton Inn which adjoins it. That is expected to be next May.
Please see post # 521, dated July 13th for more background information on this.
editor’s note: MHN.com is still having difficulty posting photographs, but is trying to resolve the problem asap!
This project, as submitted, had some conflicts with the city’s urban design standards. I submitted a request that the parking garage be shrunk somewhat to leave more room for future development along India Street – do you recall if the Board took up that consideration?
Thanks for attending, and reporting…
-C
As a business owner on this block, that already has three parking lots, I am extremely disappointed that we are going to have another one. Real cities have public transportation and people walk to area businesses. More parking lots mean more people drive to a particular destination, do their business at that location and then leave the area. It is not good for urban development. This should be taken into consideration when the planning board makes it’s decisions…..
First we were told the developers were placing a single story (on other words – flat) parking lot there, so they could develop the lot at another time. Now it’s two stories, which seems to imply they will put a real building there much farther in the future. Doesn’t anyone with the city see that Middle Street is a healthy retail street that brings people across Franklin (how much time and money has been spent on that subject recently), and is one of the gateways to the East End and Munjoy Hill that works? To mar the street with another crappy parking structure is just bad planning. But wait! “Planning board member Michael Patterson responsded: “The planning board does not dictate what is built. It’s up to the the developer.” ” So the planning board can’t do anything. Doesn’t that mean it’s just useless?
Congratulations Portland on more great urban development! I can’t wait to see what the place looks like in ten years.