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06/24/2019 01:15 PMCould new zoning regulations that apply to specific businesses help fix the congestion that occurs in the marine area during the summer months? Some people seem to think the answer is “Yes.”
On June 19, a regulations subcommittee of the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) met with a handful of members of the public to discuss the issue of stationary vendors. Currently Clinton has one stationary vendor: Shanks, a converted lobster boat that serves food and is located at the end of Grove Street across from Lobster Landing. The Clinton zoning regulations currently define a stationary vendor as “A vendor which operates a truck or trailer or other portable structure but is intended to stay in one location.”
As part of a periodic review of its own regulations, the PZC is interested in possibly revising the regulations as they relate to stationary vendors. Possible updates to the plan may call for the inclusion of a map of what the property will look like, an expanded list of definitions, and a mandatory number of parking spots that would correlate to the number of seats.
The updated definitions that could be codified in the regulations would help distinguish stationary vendors from restaurant. Restaurants typically are subject to more stringent zoning regulations than stationary vendors.
Commerce and Grove streets are two two-way streets that meet to form a triangle near the Town Marina. Both Lobster Landing and Shanks are located at the intersection. There is substantial traffic in the area, particularly during the summer months, and what consultant planner John Guszkowski called in the past “a relatively poorly controlled parking and circulation plan.”
Gary Bousquet, a member of the regulations subcommittee, said that the issue the town faces is balancing a desire to encourage the development of the marina area with a need to protect the residential areas that need to be traversed to access the marina area. In recent months some residents who live in the area have expressed concern over safety and parking issues. When the parking spots are full near the food service areas, some visitors park on the side of the roads, which can make navigating the streets difficult and potentially unsafe, and has resulted in damage to the yards of some houses.
PZC and regulations subcommittee member Alan Kravitz said that the regulations committee “is a small part of the solution.” Kravitz pointed to work being done by the police commission as another separate part of the solution. Kravitz also stated that while Shanks is currently the only stationary vendor, in the future there could be more, and thus the regulations need to be strong enough to apply for future uses.
“It’s about the whole town” said Kravitz.
Earlier in June the Board of Police Commissioners voted to lower the speed limit from to 25 from 30 mph.
“We want the commerce, it’s good for the community, but at the same time respect the residents. We want the neighborhood to be safe,” said Police Chief Vincent DeMaio.
Bousquet said that following the regulations meeting, the issue would be discussed in front of the entire PZC, a formal application by the PZC would be developed, and then the issue would come before the public at a public hearing, likely sometime in the early fall. Similarly, the police commission has said that it hopes to have a solution to the issue before the end of the season, such as potentially adding “No Parking” signage to the area to help the property owners.