KENT, Conn.—Motoriot has finally gotten Planning and Zoning Commission approval for its revised parking plan for 21 Bridge St., but not without some close questioning from commission members.
After months of delay, the firm’s owners, Jason Doornick and Charles Narwold, hired engineer Larry Page to lay out the parking design, submitting the completed plan at the last meeting before the commission had to reject it for lack of information.
It was the latest chapter in a tortuous process the men had followed in getting regulatory approval after they open their doors on Feb. 1, 2024, without permits.
Page told the commission that the professionally laid out plan provides for a “storage area” for Motoriot’s “inventory,” i.e. the vehicles it sells.
Doornick and Narwold scour the world for vintage Land Rovers and the like before restoring and selling them as bespoke vehicles. The storage area is reserved for the display of up to 20 vehicles.
Other parking spaces are reserved for Motoriot parking and for the owner’s two tenants, a Volvo dealership and a landscaper. Since they first opened their doors, Doornick and Narwold have purchased the building from former owner Guy Mauri and his business is no longer there.
Because there are fewer parking places, Page said the handicap access parking spaces have been moved. He reported that the previously approved upstairs apartments are unoccupied, but that he worked with the fire marshal to ensure there is proper egress. Additionally, the width of the fire lane was increased “so the fire department has no issue.”
Narwold said certificates of occupancy will be sought for the apartments when all building requirements are met.
“This is the kind of plan we have been waiting for,” said Commission Chairman Wesley Wyrick. But that did not mean commissioners were ready to rubber stamp it. They said the proposed parking spaces should be delineated with painted stripes to ensure that the maximum amount of parking is retained.
“Because there are so many assignments to different uses, it would be help,” said Commission Chairman Wesley Wyrick. “You lose a certain percentage of parking if it is not striped.”
The commission dedicated considerable time to the inventory storage area at the front of the building. Wyrick questioned whether the owners could reasonably expect to display 20 vehicles in an area that is 75 by 30 feet. Assuming that each car is eight feet wide, he calculated about nine vehicles could be parked side by side. Even with two lines of car, it would fall short of 20.
There has been contention in the past about Motoriot parking cars on the town’s sidewalks and Wyrick said his questioning was an attempt “to avoid the nuisance factor.”
Doornick argued that his application specified that different kinds of vehicles would be on display, including motorcycles. Because the cars vary in size, he said he could not give specifics about the way they would be aligned, but assured commission members that he and his partner are concerned about the business’ visual presentation.
“We’re using it as storage for inventory,” he said. “Not for repairs. We don’t want it to look unappealing.”
He said the cars must be displayed in a way that allows customers to open doors to enter and exit vehicles. “They will be presented so a person can walk between them,” he explained. “That’s why the space is designed to be modular, so we can present our art, our pieces of work. It would be up to us to comply with this plan.”
Wyrick and Doornick disagreed about the three-foot width of walkways, with Wyrick, an architect, insisting that regulations for handicapped access call for five feet and Doornick saying the fire marshal had cleared a three-foot provision.
Attention turned to the landscaper’s storage area, with commissioner’s asking what would be there. The men said there would be no salt stored over the town’s aquifer. “The usage is not changing, just the designated space,” Doornick said.
Doornick bristled when commissioner Anne McAndrew asked if the new parking plan would mean that employees would no longer park in front of residences on Elizabeth Street.
“We are not breaking any laws by parking on Elizabeth Street,” he said brusquely. He said he spoke with First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer about the issue—neighbors have complained about the employees parking there and their attitude—and said that a lack of parking is an issue throughout the center.
“By no means should we be seen as a lens for the town’s issue,” he asserted. “We are not the [cause] of this problem; it’s the town’s problem. Kent does not have enough parking. We are using legal spots to park our cars.”
Commission member Chris Harrington read the zoning regulations that said that businesses should provide enough parking for their employees, but Doornick was not swayed. “We will continue to park there—that’s it,” he concluded.
Commission member Darrell Cherniske concluded that the most important factors were ensuring the fire lane and the public sidewalks are not infringed upon. “I don’t really care how they used the storage space as long as they are conforming,” he said. “Anything that is outside of the storage area, we can take action for that. We can define the space, and we can enforce it.”
Other members agreed and the application was approved with four conditions: walkways be increased to five feet in width, parking spaces, fire lane and walkways be striped; reserved parking requires signage, and there is no storage of road salt in the landscaper’s area.
