The Portland Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to endorse plans for an expansion of the St. Lawrence Arts Center that supporters said would further enhance the city’s already thriving cultural scene but that critics warned could exacerbate parking problems on Munjoy Hill.

After a lengthy public hearing, board members approved plans by the Friends of the St. Lawrence Arts Center for a 401-seat theater on the Congress Street lot once occupied by the St. Lawrence Church sanctuary. The new theater – housed in a new, roughly 15,000-square-foot building – would allow the center to host much larger events than possible now in the center’s adjacent, 110-seat Parish Hall Theater.

Additional Images

An artist’s rendering shows how the St. Lawrence Arts Center would look if the 401-seat theater is built on Congress Street in Munjoy Hill. Courtesy of Archetype Architects

The board’s recommendation now goes to the City Council for consideration.

“It is 100 percent better than where it was,” said board member Sean Dundon, referring to initial versions of the plan presented to the board. “The St. Lawrence now is a jewel on The Hill if you are a resident, and with the artists they can attract … it can be a crown jewel.”

The board’s vote came after Munjoy Hill residents presented divided testimony about the project and, in particular, its potential impact on parking in the neighborhood.

“We are putting a regional venue into a residential neighborhood and they do not have any off-street parking that they can offer,” said local resident Vana Carmona.

The Friends group had received board approval in 2010 to reconstruct the former sanctuary building on the site, but that project proved too costly. The group’s current request – technically an amendment to its earlier plans – calls for a modern building 54 feet tall at its highest point that its designers say aims to complement the adjacent stone-faced parish hall.

The focus of most of Tuesday’s public testimony was whether the organization should be required to provide parking to theatergoers in a section of Portland where on-street parking can be tough to find on busy nights or when the snow piles up.

The proposal does not include any dedicated parking for those attending events at the arts center. Instead, the Friends group has offered to pay $70,000 a year to Greater Portland Metro to expand bus service on the Congress Street route, enabling buses to run more often throughout the day and later into the night. The center would offer valet parking for a fee but would also offer free, validated parking at other peninsula garages with the goal of encouraging audience members to park elsewhere and then use mass transit.

The $70,000 would be financed through a $5-per-ticket surcharge on all theatergoers regardless of how they get to the arts center.

Opponents questioned whether theatergoers would be willing to ride the bus to the center and then wait for up to 30 minutes for a return ride to their car after the show. They also questioned the size of the building.

“I think the venue is just too large for a residential community,” said Christine Kiley of Turner Street. “I would love to see them do something smaller.”

With roughly 400 seats plus a rooftop reception room, the theater would fill a gap in Portland’s arts scene by offering a midsize venue to acts unlikely to attract a crowd large enough to fill, say, the State Theatre, but that far exceed the capacity of the center’s parish hall and other smaller venues.

Deirdre Nice with the Friends group said that if the project is approved by the City Council her organization will begin efforts to raise the estimated $6 million to $7 million to build the theater. The new facility could open in late 2016 or early 2017.

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