SALEM — A once contentious three-story project on the corner of Lafayette Street and West Avenue has been scaled way back, and now much slimmer, finally cleared its first major hurdle on the way to construction.
The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a variance Wednesday night for a retail and office complex proposed by local developer Bob Burr. The decision followed repeated attempts by Burr to bring the project down in size and garner support from the neighbors, many of whom were strongly opposed at the outset.
The latest version of the proposal — formerly dubbed Lafayette Place — is down to 24,000 Square Feet spread evenly across three floors — 16,000 square feet less than what was first discussed, according to Burr. It comes with 69 Parking spaces as well — more than the 45 initially discussed but less than the 85 proposed a month ago.
Burr also scrapped a plan to provide parking under part of the building's second and third floors. The proposal came up initially to provide more parking and cut down on the square footage of the first floor.
"We didn't need that once we reduced the size of the building," he said. "The parking number now has been and is in conformance with zoning regulations."
Additionally, Burr recently put a fourth piece of property under agreement for the site at 11 West Ave., bundling with it a promise to set aside some of the land for the city to widen the end of the road for traffic improvement. He has since ended plans to demolish the two-family home on the lot, which he had suggested in December.
"The sentiment at the last meeting was that demolishing 11 West Ave. was really making a commercial parking lot encroach too much into the residential neighborhood," he said. "What I've decided to do, instead, is actually enhance the neighborhood by acquiring 11 West Ave. and renovating it."
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