The Newcastle Board of Selectmen discussed the ongoing application process for the Newcastle Harbor House, a proposed three-story building including a 150-seat restaurant, office space and condominiums at their Sept. 13 meeting.
Mattson Development, the company behind the project, plans to move the Newcastle Publick House restaurant from its current location in Newcastle Center into the ground floor of the new building at 75 Main Street.
Town Administrator Ron Grenier; Rick Burt, Chairman of the Newcastle Planning Board; town attorney Peter Drum and other town officials joined the selectmen for the discussion. Comments were generally positive, but concerns persist about worsening already congested summertime parking.
Newcastle Road Commissioner Steve Reynolds prepared a survey of parking spaces in the “village center.” Including spaces on Main, Cross, Glidden and Pump streets and the lots of two churches and several local businesses, 189 spaces, including four handicap spaces, exist in the area.
Seventy-two of the spaces, however, have varying limits on their use. A parking lot at the new building would provide additional spaces. Mattson Development has proposed to supplement available spaces with valet parking, using the parking lot above Newcastle Center as a satellite lot. Mattson Development owns the Newcastle Center building.
Burt expressed concerns about inadequate lighting in the Newcastle Center lot. “It’s dark as a hole up there,” he said.
Grenier said residents in the area might object to more lighting.
Citing the waist-high lighting at the L.L. Bean parking lot in Freeport as an example, Drum said lighting options are available that limit light pollution. The town could ask Mattson Development to include the parking lot in their site review application, he said.
Burt said parking on small side streets could create a problem by blocking the passage of emergency vehicles.
Grenier said he would ask Newcastle Fire Chief Clayton Huntley to examine the streets.
If parking on some streets becomes a problem, the town can post “no parking” signs on those streets, Drum said. “To a certain extent, parking solves itself,” he said.
Drum also recommended requiring the applicant to provide access through the rear of the building. Right now, the application calls for parking in the rear of the building, requiring customers to walk up a steep driveway against incoming traffic to enter the front of the building.
Bob Martin, Chief Operating Officer for Mattson Development, has said the driveway would include a lighted pedestrian walkway.
The officials all expressed a willingness to work with the applicant to resolve any issues. In the past, Burt said, the town wanted a residential building to go in at that location. “Now we’re all trying to make it work because we want this business to succeed,” he said.
“We want that ugly thing to go away,” Selectman Lee Straw said, referring to the incomplete elevator shaft across the street from Maritime Farms at the location of the proposed restaurant. Larger towns, like Hallowell, Portland and Boston don’t concern themselves with parking, Straw said.
A public hearing on the site review application for the Newcastle Harbor House will take place Thurs., Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. at the community meeting room in the Newcastle fire station on River Road.
In other town business, Sen. David Trahan (R-Waldoboro) and Rep. Jon McKane (R-Newcastle) met with selectmen to discuss state attempts to transfer road maintenance and teacher retirement costs to municipalities.
“I would encourage municipalities to watch very closely,” Trahan said. Already, two attempts have been made to transfer about $100 million in teacher retirement costs to the local level, he said.
Trahan and McKane both said they would oppose any such transfer. “It’s really burdening the property taxpayers,” Trahan said.
McKane encouraged the selectmen to attend hearings of the state appropriations committee in order to express their concerns.
