Parking Concerns Make For Downtown Apartment Plan Redesign

Developers said they will redesign their plan for a downtown apartment building on Cabot Street, after the Planning Board said the original design would not be approved due to parking concerns, the Salem News reported.

The 13-unit apartment building, to be built on the parking lot next to Siam Delight and Sam's Cleaners, proposed to have 14 parking spaces on the site, but under the zoning laws, it would have a total of 38 spaces available.

The proposal before the Planning Board was to allow the residents and their guests, as well as the customers of the commercial space, to use the paid parking spaces in the municipal lot, to compensate for the 24 missing spaces. 

But, at the planning board meeting in September, several residents presented a petition with 255 signatures, including many business owners in the area, in opposition to the granting of a special permit for the project.

At Tuesday's meeting, Attorney Tom Alexander said, in response to the planning board's suggestion, the development team will create an alternative design that will include all of the required parking within the building's lot, the Salem News reported.