Underground parking OKd
Barbara Diamond
Proposed underground parking at the Pottery Shack at 1212 South Coast Highway was given a pass by the planning commission.
“The council more or less blessed the project when they sent it to
us,” Commissioner Anne Johnson said. “They wanted it expedited as a
way to ease the parking problems in the area.”
The recommendation to approve the project, including the
demolition of the back building on the corner of Glenneyre and Brooks
streets, will be reviewed by the council at the Sept. 6 meeting.
“We do want to see a parking management plan for the whole project
before the complex opens,” Johnson said. “And we asked [unofficially]
for mature sycamores to replace any trees that are removed. We did it
by memo because we do not have jurisdiction.”
A decades-old sycamore must be chopped down to make way for the
project.
The landscape plan must be approved by the design review board.
Some neighbors opposed the underground parking project when it was
first proposed to the council on June 7. Councilwoman Jane Egly, who
has worked with neighbors to ease the parking problems on their
streets, was shocked at the opposition.
“I am confused,” Egly said at the meeting. “Before I was even on
the council I met with the Flatlanders who were unhappy about
parking. We discussed underground parking, and I had the clear sense
that they thought it was a good idea.”
The city heritage committee voted, 4-1, against the proposal.
Heritage status for the entire project was recommended by the
committee based on the owner’s pledge to preserve its outward
appearance. A reduction in parking requirements was the reward for
the pledge.
Committee member Bonnie Hano said if the back building was
demolished, the parking reduction should be revoked.
However, the city’s historical preservation ordinance does not
prohibit the demolition of a historical structure, subject to a
waiting period, according to planning administrator Ann Larson.
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