As Northampton’s Planning Board prepares for its December 14 public hearing with Capital Video (7:00pm, 212 Main Street), we’d like to revisit the issue of parking at 135 King Street, the proposed site for Capital Video’s 6,222-square-foot retail shop.
We earlier raised the issue of parking in our October 29 post, which questioned whether a 25-space parking lot was adequate to handle the volumes seen at Bookends, a porn shop of similar size in Enfield, CT. In a 1994 article, the Union-News reported that Bookends “on busy Saturdays caters to between 650 and 900 customers.” In addition to our concern that cars could overflow the lot at 135 King Street, we are also concerned that access to the lot is inadequate for a busy store.
Here are photographs comparing access to parking at Bookends and at 135 King Street. The parking lot at Bookends has two access points, one of which is exclusively for traffic entering the lot. By contrast, the parking lot at 135 King Street is served by a single alleyway, and this access is shared with the Autopart store next door.
We ask the Planning Board to consider carefully whether the parking arrangements at 135 King Street are adequate to serve a busy retail store.
Access to Bookends parking lot from main street (enter only)
Access to Bookends from side street (enter and exit)
This alley is the sole access to the parking lot at 135 King Street. This access is shared with the Autopart store next door.
When the car dealership was located there,there were more cars going in and out than there will be when Capitol Video opens.When the dealership was there,the autoparts store NEVER had any issue what so ever with it.
Some hard facts would be welcome here, paco. The newspaper reports that Bookends can get up to 900 customers on a busy Saturday. Bookends is comparable in size and customers to Capital Video’s proposed store. The Bookends’ experience is more relevant than that of a car dealership or auto parts store.
What type of facts would you like me to gather for you on the traffic that was imposed by the car dealership?I know for a FACT that when that dealership was there,there was plenty of traffic going in and out of there all day every day.A lot more than I’m sure that a Capitol Video store will generate.Again,I know first hand that it did NOT have any affect on the autoparts dtore next door and I’m sure that when Capitol Video opens,it will not affect the autoparts store in anyway,nor any other business for that matter.
The car dealership doesn’t seem relevant. Capital Video is not proposing to sell cars. The car dealership’s effect on Autopart is also not relevant.
Why isn’t the car dealership relevant? You say, there will be a lot of traffic in and out of the C/V store. Paco says, well, there was a lot of traffic in and out of there when it was a car dealership, and there were no ill-effects. Then you say, that’s not relevant.
Is car dealership traffic different in substance than porn store traffic? Holding the number of cars constant, are cars more problematic when they’re going to a porn store?
Of course it is relevant.You missed my point completely.Again.I was pointing out that the dealership had much more traffic than Capitol Video will.Traffic is traffic no matter what business is there.No matter the business,there will be traffic and there was NEVER an issue with the traffic whatever business has been located there.A large electrical store was located there for many,many years before the dealership was there and traffic was never a concern.Does the huge amount of traffic that is generated by Dunkin or Cumberland Farms concern you as well?I highly doubt it.As i highly doubt that the traffic generated by Capitol Video will be any more than previous businesses.