The 171-187 King St. site was originally slated for a car dealership, but that now looks unlikely.
Reminder Publishing photo by Ryan Feyre
NORTHAMPTON — During its regular meeting on Sept. 12, the Northampton Planning Board denied a site plan by Cosenzi Automotive Realty LP for a commercial parking lot with 335 parking spaces on 171-187 King St.
The Planning Board could not approve this site plan because the city’s building department determined that Consenzi’s current use for the site is not considered commercial parking and therefore does not comply with the zoning bylaw.
“Commercial parking is about parking lots where people go and pay to park, and there’s in and out of public and private businesses” said Carolyn Misch, the city’s director of Planning and Sustainability. “This proposal doesn’t meet commercial parking.”
According to Misch, Cosenzi Realty submitted this application in response to an enforcement action made by the city because of Cosenzi’s storage of cars on the site. The applicant said during the meeting that the cars are currently unregistered.
According to the city, unregistered vehicles can be allowed on the lot if they are attached to an auto dealership or if the applicant receives a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals to allow for more than two unregistered vehicles on a lot. No dealership is attached to this site at the moment, and the applicant does not currently have a special permit from the ZBA.
Background and current status
Cosenzi Realty purchased the land, which contains two parcels, in 2023 with the original intention of building a 14,200-square-foot Volvo automotive dealership on 2 acres of the property. During the meeting on Sept. 12, Carla Cosenzi, the owner of the 171-187 King St. property and the co-president of Tommy Car Automotive Group, said she also planned to relieve some of the financial burden to allow someone to bring in mixed housing and affordable housing on the rest of the property.
Those plans, however, have been thwarted by a recent zoning amendment approved by the City Council in May that banned automobile dealerships in the gateway district, which is where 171-187 King St. resides, after councilors argued that the zoning change would better align with the city’s future climate resiliency and sustainability goals.
The amendment was spurred by a citizen’s petition, signed by 16 registered voters in the city, which asked for the zoning change in response to the Volvo Dealership proposal.
Despite the amendment to the zoning, the city determined that Cosenzi could still apply for a special permit for the dealership since they filed a plan prior to the zoning amendment.
That process to freeze the zoning, however, has caused some timing issues for the owner.
Cosenzi said during the Sept. 12 meeting that she has to follow a certain timeframe with their manufacturer to have the facility finished, but since the process to freeze the prior zoning has delayed their plans, Cosenzi Realty will be unable to build a dealership within their manufacturer’s timeframe.
“We were willing to design it to the form-based code that the planning board allowed, but the zoning has now changed,” Cosenzi said. “Where the city could have had a beautiful dealership on frontage that fit form-based code with housing and parking next to it, now that option doesn’t exist.”
Planning Board meeting
Several people present at the Planning Board meeting on Sept. 14 spoke against the site plan presented.
Benjamin Spencer, a resident of Rust Avenue and of the signees of the petition earlier this year, said that it did not make sense to move forward with the site plan proposed.
“There’s a lot of reasons why this site plan doesn’t live up to the requirements of the zoning, and so I think that it makes sense that we hit pause on this,” Spencer said. “I think it makes sense to really keep in mind what the intentions of the Gateway District are, and this isn’t it.”
A couple people, including Hooker Avenue resident Priscilla Novitt expressed concerns over the noises coming from the site, including car alarms going off.
“It doesn’t feel like a good fit,” Novitt said. “It doesn’t feel like it meets any of the intent of the district, and it’s disappointing, and I hope it won’t happen.”
The Planning Board ultimately had to comply with what the building commissioner said but not before Planning Board member Sam Taylor lamented the zoning amendment the council made earlier this year. The board gave a negative recommendation for the zoning changes during a meeting in the spring.
“I feel incredibly bad for Ms. Cosenzi … the idea that you made a business decision, and someone changes the rules out from underneath you is just gross,” Taylor said. “Our city should be ashamed.”
Cosenzi Realty will now go through an appeals process since the commercial parking site plan was denied, and the applicant will gather more information from the building commissioner about what is considered commercial parking.
Other item
The Planning Board also decided to continue a public hearing to review a preliminary subdivision for 461 feet of new road by Cosenzi Realty. The board said they need to do a site visit before discussing the plan.
