Town officials are carefully considering the scope of a parking study they hope will better inform the needs of Belmont Center in the context of the Belmont Center Overlay project.
The project—which allows for increased building height to buildings on Leonard Street, with plans for mixed-use development—stems from a 2008 report, “A Planning Vision for Belmont Center,” which recommended an overlay district.
Town planners are considering using form-based zoning when creating the overlay, providing guidelines on the physical design of any new development.
In April, the project was nixed from the annual Town Meeting warrant to allow more time for data gathering, particularly with respect to traffic and parking.
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“[We’re] making sure the parking inventory reflects what the additional generation of automobiles will be with the new development,” said Planning and Building Director and Town Planner Chris Ryan. “We have private parking, we have public parking; we have lots. We have on-street [parking]. We have the different rules and restrictions that are in place for a lot of those spaces as well. We’re looking at all of that just to be sure the inventory is going to be satisfactory.”
Additionally, the town could hire a consultant who would generate recommendations and strategies for how the town can either expand its inventory (if necessary) or expand the flexibility of the rules and restrictions that are placed on the different lots or street spaces.
Ryan said he had previously created a broad scope for the study that was similar to the scope of a comprehensive study conducted in the center over a decade ago. The Select Board, however, felt it included more data than necessary to answer the questions relevant to Belmont Center zoning. As a result, the board agreed to have Vice Chair Matt Taylor work with Ryan to refine the project scope, define the geography to be studied, and determine the scope of tasks required of the consultant.
“Right now we’re talking to two different consultants to get a price for those tasks and make sure they feel we’re going to get a product that really addresses the questions from their perspective,” Ryan said. “They can say, ‘Well, if you don’t do this you might have a knowledge gap that might be consequential.’”
Ryan noted that while he hopes a study offers answers he can bring to the special Town Meeting in October, it’s possible that additional questions, such as the feasibility of a parking structure, may be answered via the study as well.
“It may or may not,” he said, adding that it would be a “fairly expensive add-on” to the study’s scope. “I’d like it to; I’m always thinking of the skies the limit.”
In any case, the Claflin Street lot, he said, remains excluded from Phase I of the project.
Ryan said he intends to budget the study around $25,000; the latest pricing indicated a range closer to $32,000 to $42,000, which was too expensive. As for the timeline, he hopes to be able to provide Town Meeting with a few key points in the fall, namely whether the town has calibrated its parking needs accurately.
