KENT, Conn.—Motoriot, a car dealership on Bridge Street that restores and sells classic cars, has had a checkered career with town government since opening for business in early 2023.
It opened without zoning or sewer district approval and without a state license for its Kent location.
Since then, it has battled retroactively through the zoning process, receiving its permit only hours before its application would have been automatically denied, and only recently obtained its state license. But problems have lingered, most particularly about parking.
It is back before the Planning and Zoning Commission for a parking plan approval but has delayed submission of the site plan three times. It now faces an August deadline with the PZC.
Land Use Administrator Tai Kern told PZC members at their June meeting that if the plan is not submitted by August, the application will “have to be denied for lack of information.”
Parking for the business has presented problems for the owners and the community from the beginning. The owners, Jason Doornick and Charles Narwold, have been admonished for parking their inventory on the sidewalk and have been encouraged to be neighborly in planning parking for employees.
But Elizabeth Street neighbors came before the Board of Selectmen Wednesday, July 2, to complain about Motoriot employees’ conduct, citing problems with them parking along their street, speeding, and noise from when the business tests vehicles.
An email written by Barry Enis that was read into the record detailed the problems. He said that residents of Elizabeth Street co-existed with previous garages at the site who were “great neighbors, respecting that we are a residential area.”
“On any given day, we have people walking with children, people riding bikes and Kent [Center] School children walking to class,” he wrote. “I feel the current owner has little respect for the residents of Elizabeth Street. On several occasion, [employees have] haphazardly parked either too close to the corner or too close to people’s driveways, making it difficult for older, longtime resident to leave their driveways.”
He complained that employees’ cars block mailboxes and that the speeding cars associated with the business are “a safety concern.”
“I have tried to reason with the owner, suggesting he try to be a good neighbor, but it fell on deaf ears and [resulted in] him parking an old truck in front of my house for days,” he asserted.
He requested a meeting with the selectmen and the Resident State Trooper, suggesting that a “residents only” parking area be created.
During the meeting, a letter signed by several more disgruntled Elizabeth Street residents was presented.
During Wednesday’s meeting Lindenmayer said the Motoriot site plan is to come before Planning and Zoning but added that the town needs to re-evaluate a parking plan for the entire downtown area. “We certainly have to look at how we optimize parking,” he said, acknowledging that there are currently no restrictions on parking on Elizabeth Street.
“People fly down this block,” Enis told the selectmen. “There has been no solution in 25 years. Someone is going to get hurt.”
Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington noted that the Kent Memorial Library, faced with a parking problem of its own, had contracted with Kent School to rent space at its satellite location in the center of town. “It would make sense to have the employees park in area where maybe they could pay a little rent,” she suggested.
Lindenmayer said there is zoning precedent for requiring adequate employee parking, noting that a new business in the town center, Kent Kitchen Works, had to reduce its exterior seating by one table—thereby eliminating the requirement for one parking space—to gain zoning approval.
Lindenmayer is also concerned that there is no traffic control at the intersection of Elizabeth and Lane streets and Route 341. A crossing guard used to be present during the hours children were going to and from school but retired and was not replaced. “It really concerns me that there is nothing that [pedestrians] can touch to light up a warning signal,” he said.
Worthington suggested that the soon-to-be-formed Economic Development Commission could look at parking as part of its mission.
