The City Council Ordinance Committee and the Planning Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday to discuss whether the parking lot could be permitted in the form of granting a special permit.
A crowd attends a Willie Nelson concert at Moutain Park in Holyoke in August 2010.HOLYOKE – Eric S. Suher withdrew one proposal to install another parking lot beside his Mountain Park concert site, and an a second plan was rejected.
However, the proposal is far from dead.
The City Council Ordinance Committee and the Planning Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday to discuss whether the parking lot could be permitted in the form of granting a special permit.
The hearing is at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
The advantage for the city in granting uses by special permit is it allows imposition of conditions to reduce a use’s intrusiveness, Ordinance Committee Chairman Diosdado Lopez said Friday.
In contrast, he said, conditions are prohibited on a use that is allowed by right in a particular zone.
Another option for Suher to get the parking lot is to resubmit a proposal for a zone change, Lopez said.
Suher has said he wants to add a lot with 200 to 300 parking spaces for the seasonal Mountain Park performance venue.
On Feb. 8, after multiple hearings since September dominated by residents and others opposing the plan, it was announced that Suher withdrew the request for a zone change he needed to install a parking lot.
Suher in a phone interview Feb. 15 declined to say why he withdrew the request, and wouldn’t discuss his plans for Mountain Park.
“I’m not going to comment on anything before the city right now,” he said.
Rulings about zone changes and special permits lie with the City Council, which considers recommendations from the Planning Board.
Suher’s plan involved two parcels. One is nearly 12 acres, zoned Residential Agricultural and east of Interstate 91.
The other parcel is nearly 48 acres, has two different zoning designations, Residential Agricultural and Business Highway, and is west of I-91.
Suher had sought to change the zone of the smaller parcel to Business Highway to build the parking lot. His plan involved using only part of the parcel and keeping most of it undeveloped, he said.
Despite withdrawing the zone-change request for the smaller parcel, Suher kept active a request for a zone change to make the larger parcel uniformly Business Highway.
Suher’s lawyer, Burton S. Resnic, said he wanted the zone change to make the larger parcel uniform and to allow for expansion of the seating area.
But the Planning Board Feb. 8 voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council reject Suher’s zone-change request for the larger parcel.
The board’s reasons were that current zoning rules didn’t restrict use of the property and making the entire parcel Business Highway would be detrimental to the neighborhood and environment, said Kathleen G. Anderson, director of the city Office of Planning and Development.
In the city zoning code, besides commercial parking, various uses are allowed in Business Highway areas, but not in Residential Agricultural areas, that some residents consider intrusive to live near.
Such uses include hotels and motels, retail stores, restaurants, including those with drive-through service, professional offices, testing laboratories, transportation terminals and warehouses.
Residents and officials at hearings also have asked whether Suher sought the zone change to a business use in case the state eventually legalizes casino gambling, but Suher has said he didn’t have casino plans for Mountain Park.