Claremont
While there have been (and still are) a number of well-established businesses and restaurants, Trottier has seen many more come and go, leaving stretches of vacant storefronts.
He thinks the city has been seeking solutions from the wrong place, and now it’s time the city tries a different strategy. His suggestion? Repopulate the area, and a stronger retail sector will follow.
“What we have seen the last 30 years is there is not a great demand for commercial space (downtown),” Trottier recently said. “We keep thinking of what we would like to have with these buildings and meanwhile, the owners are put in a holding pattern. We have to repurpose these buildings.”
To “repurpose,” Trottier would like to see policies and ordinances supporting more residential housing along Pleasant Street and around Opera House Square, something he said city officials have discouraged for years.
“They preferred to have the buildings vacant,” Trottier said.
Thanks to support from the city manager and a recent decision by the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Trottier sees a new direction taking shape. The ZBA approved a variance for six first-floor apartments in the back portion of the Goddard Block on Pleasant Street, where New England Family Housing has a purchase and sales agreement that likely will go through if the Planning Board approves a site plan. The ZBA also approved a variance requiring fewer parking spaces than what currently is required.
Building owners and city officials agree that there are other obstacles to having more apartments available for rent in the downtown — primarily a significant investment for code improvements — but having enough parking to satisfy city ordinances looms large.
“Clearly it is not just parking,” Claremont’s Planning and Development Director Nancy Merrill said. “But we don’t want parking to be a hindrance if an owner wants to invest (in their property). It can’t be the issue (that stops redevelopment).”
Some of the buildings, including the Goddard Block, which was shut down in March due to numerous safety and code violations, do not have the 1.5 spaces per unit that are required for site plan approval under the existing ordinance. The approved ZBA variance means New England Family Housing would need 32 spaces, instead of 48, if it renovates the building as planned.
“Kevin (Lacasse’s) victory is the step in the right direction,” Trottier said, referring to the principal in New England Family Housing of New Hampton, N.H., which previously renovated 13 apartments in the former Latchis Theater building on Pleasant Street about 10 years ago.
Lacasse still needs site plan approval and must find 15 parking spaces to go along with the 17 spots already on the property.
Merrill said she is developing a plan to address parking downtown and hopes to bring a proposal before the council as early as this fall.
“We are at a point where we want to look at some broad policy on a residential parking system of some kind,” Merrill said. “This is an economic development problem. How can you ask someone to invest in their property, bring it up to code and fill it up if you don’t have a long-term parking strategy? We are in the beginning stages and will be talking to private lot owners about being part of an overall residential parking plan.”
Trottier said his building has 34 apartments and is mostly full, but only about five tenants have cars.
He pointed out that site plan requirements do not allow the parking garage on Main Street to be designated for spaces. There are no shared parking agreements with private lot owners, nor can off-street parking be utilized. The 256-space garage, which cost about $6 million to construct, opened in 2010. Some of the spaces are leased to businesses and others would be for the Peterson building on Water Street, if it is developed.
“There are just no options,” Trottier said. “We need these (shared) agreements.”
City Manager Ryan McNutt, who came on board in February, wants the city to be an advocate for landlords interested in bringing their buildings up to code.
“We should be able to show that parking is not a limiting factor,” McNutt said.
Two other downtown building owners agree that parking is a problem. Though neither have immediate plans to renovate the apartments above their storefronts, they said they agreed with Trottier’s view.
“We are on the same page,” said Dr. Robert Tatro, who owns the building next to the Goddard Block at 66 Pleasant St., where a fitness business operates.
Tatro said Real Steel Fitness has hundreds of members and depending on the time of day, parking can be a challenge for those customers.
Frank Sprague, who earlier this year bought the building that formerly housed Twisted Fitness at 19 Pleasant St., also said if he did improve the apartments on the second and third floors, he only has 12 of the required 18 spaces under the current ordinance.
“The code work is expensive (elevator, sprinkler system, etc.), but even if you have the money to bring a building up to code, you are dead in the water with the parking problem,” said Sprague, who is looking to have a retail establishment on the first floor.
Redevelopment can happen successfully with owners willing to make a long-term investment, Merrill said.
“(Trottier) has invested a lot. He and (Lacasse) are good examples of property owners who have developed and maintained their properties,” she said.
The Union Block, the former Latchis theater building and the Brown Block, opposite the Union Block, are good examples of redevelopment in the downtown for market-rate and mixed-rate rents, Merrill said.
Lacasse previously said that New England Family Housing is putting together a financing package for the Goddard Block that will include a Community Development Block Grant, affordable housing tax credits and private financing to raise about $5 million needed for a complete overhaul of the building.
The rents would be affordable to working-class residents with a blend of income levels, Lacasse said.
Encouraging the sort of residential development that Lacasse is focusing on will result in people with disposable incomes walking the downtown, which in turn can bring in more businesses to meet the demands of those residents, Trottier said.
Trottier said he likes what he has heard from McNutt on solving the issue of downtown parking for residential housing, something he had not seen from previous administrations.
“I am encouraged,” he said. “If the city does not develop a residential parking plan, we will continue to have a downtown without residential use.”
McNutt said it is a priority for him.
“If you want a downtown with residential density, you are going to have to allow them to develop their buildings,” he said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
