By James Lomuscio
Parking structures and the construction of a movie theater were among the topics a Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) downtown subcommittee focused on today.
P&Z Chairman Ronald Corwin was joined by commission members Ellie Lowenstien and Cathy Walsh, as well as Laurence Bradley, director of the Planing and Zoning Department, for the hour-and-a-half brainstorming session.
It was designed to look at zoning changes that could facilitate the revitalization of the downtown.
A previous P&Z subcommittee meeting headed by Howard Lathrop Monday morning looked at changes that were outside the P&Z’s purview, but the commission could suggest nonetheless.
“Today, we talked about larger zoning type issues,” said Bradley.
“We talked about parking structures and what kinds of zoning changes would allow for parking structures with residential and retail components maybe built on the same parcel.”
Subcommittee members discussed possible parking garages at Jesup Green or the Baldwin parking lot.
“And we talked about a movie theater and the type of zoning needs for that,” said Bradley. “Maybe we could create an overlay zone for the movie theater.’
An overlay zone, he said, could be placed on any commercial property in town, allowing different zoning criteria to apply.
“Are we going to allow additional building height for the theater? Are we going to give them any break on parking?” said Bradley, describing the questions discussed.
“We also talked about how we could have complementary parking for the theater,” he added. “An office building sharing parking with a movie theater could work very well.
“Most theater going is at night or on weekends, and it doesn’t conflict with office workers.”
Also explored was building height, said Bradley, noting that most buildings in the downtown are two stories.
“We could allow for additional stories, maybe a third floor if it were residential to create a built-in population downtown,” he said.
The subcommittee also entertained the idea of “fee in lieu of parking,” whereby property owners who want to expand their buildings would pay a fee in lieu of constructing parking downtown.
Bradley said the money would go into a trust fund so the town “can build a parking structure where we have land.”
Currently, Westport only has one area with “fee in lieu of parking” in the Historic Design District. That was put in place so that patrons of the now closed National Hall could use the parking garage across the street.
The P&Z downtown subcommittee plans to meet again Tuesday, June 14, at 8:30 a.m.
