At last week’s Planning Board Meeting Chairman Alex Whiteside made clear his disapproval of a cosmetic change the developer was seeking to make at 36 Central Ave. The plastic isn’t going to fly.

Oranmore Construction was requesting to use a plastic material in place of the originally proposed stone for the columns at the front of the building. A sample is in place currently (the far right column as you face the building).

The board did not care for the bright white appearance of the material. Mr. Sullivan, representing the developer, said that the material would be painted an off-white. Concerns were raised about how well the paint would hold up. Mr. Whiteside stated, “What we approved originally is good. This is less good. . .what they put up is unacceptable.  [The developers] are spinning their wheels and wasting our time.”

Mr. Sullivan asked that they defer a decision and allow him to present another alternative during their 1/17 session. He said, “I think you will like what we come up with.”

It was unclear why the change was being requested. When asked Mr. Sullivan said that the architect came on the site once every week or two. For the record Whiteside confirmed that the change was not being requested for economic reasons but was purely for aesthetics. They agreed to review Mr. Sullivan’s proposal at their next meeting.

in a separate matter, the board resumed the request to reduce their parking requirement. John Collins, General Manager of the restaurant, said they did not need as much parking as anticipated and that the issue was not a lack of parking but customers understanding where to park. 88 Wharf employs a valet free of charge to assist customers. Collins said only about 25% of restaurant goers take advantage of  of the service.

Mr. Collins has presented this issue previously and has appeared before the board previously. His objective is to save some money by reducing the reserved parking he needs. Evidently, this is not so easy.

Board member Ed Duffy was insistent that a plan be drawn up that indicated clearly the number of parking spaces available, who they belong to (e.g. town, MBTA,) and restrictions (i.e. 30 min spot). Ms. Innes thought that plan existed and Mr. Clark showed a schematic that approximated what Mr. Duffy was requesting but he did not appear satisfied.

Regardless of the status of such a plan, an amendment to the initial special permit will be necessary 88 Wharf is to reduce their parking request. When a member questioned this, Mr. Whiteside replied, “[it] has to be.”