Two Glen Road residents will get a new, off-road parking area, thanks to the Falmouth Planning Board. Courtesy / Sea View Homeowners Association
FALMOUTH — A pair of Glen Road residents will get new parking spots in their subdivision while resolving a legal dispute with the town.
At its Sept. 3 meeting, the Planning Board unanimously agreed to amend the site plan for the Sea View Homeowners Association to allow for a new four-space lot to accommodate the parking needs of property owners Marilyn Lalumiere and Marie Koerick.
The two will bear the entire cost of about $20,000 to build the new parking area, which will give them off-street parking that does not interfere with public access to either Underwood Beach or Underwood Spring.
Bob Kline, president of the homeowners association, said this week that the Planning Board’s action should resolve a pending legal dispute between Lalumiere, Koerick and the association over whether the association can formally vacate the paper street known as Ravine Road.
When the homeowners association conducted a land swap with an abutter in 2016, it became clear Ravine Road was no longer needed, Kline said, since it would have provided access to the landlocked parcels that were part of the swap.
So, in 2017 the association decided to petition the court to vacate the unused paper street. In 2018 Lalumiere and Koerick raised objections to the plan in a separate court filing.
Kline said the two didn’t want to see the paper street vacated because they wished to preserve their historic parking spots and “we’ve been trying to work things out ever since.”
Kline said this week that the court agreed to suspend the legal proceedings over the paper street, which began in May 2018, while the parties attempted to reach a compromise. The Planning Board vote should allow the court case to be settled, he said, although the final paperwork has not been filed yet.
This map shows the location of a new private parking area off Glen Road in Falmouth. Courtesy / Land Design Solutions
“It was clear that those folks needed parking, so we wanted to accommodate them,” Kline said.
He said the new parking area should also help with drainage and erosion issues along Glen Road and, with additional landscaping to screen the new parking area, “we’re hoping it will be a much better look all around.”
Kline said the goal is to get the private lot built this fall before frost sets in. Landscaping would have to wait until spring.
The new parking area is about 37 feet farther down Glen Road and is closer to Lalumiere’s and Koeric’s homes. As part of the agreement, the two will also have a 10-year, automatically renewed lease that runs with their property, Kline said. The women are also responsible for maintaining the area.
Kline said the small, nine-lot Sea View subdivision originally received Planning Board approval in 2005, but it took about a decade for all of the homes to be built. It wasn’t until 2015, he said, that the homeowners association took over responsibility for the common areas, as well as the conserved parcel that includes Underwood Spring.
Planning Board Chairman Tom McKeon’s main concern seemed to be what would happen to the current parking spots and how the association would prevent people from continuing to park there. Peter Biegel with Land Design Solutions in Cumberland, who was representing Lalumiere and Koeric, as well as the homeowners association last week, said new bushes would be planted and the whole parcel would be re-seeded with grass, which should deter any attempts at parking.
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