Lowell ZBA approves private eight-space parking lot at 14–16 Rockdale Ave with conditions

The Lowell Zoning Board of Appeals on Sept. 22 voted to grant a special permit and variance allowing a private, paved eight-space parking facility at 14–16 Rockdale Ave.

Attorney John Geary, representing applicant Steven J. DeRosa (trustee of the 38 Fulton Realty Trust), told the board the two adjoining lots total about 3,527 square feet and were sold by the city with deed conditions limiting uses to "open space as gardening, landscaping, and or off street residential parking." Geary said the revised site plan (submitted Sept. 18) shows an 18-foot curb cut, defined parking stalls, landscaped areas, two shade trees and a row of arborvitae for screening. Geary also said the applicant seeks a variance to expand the curb cut from the 15-foot maximum to 18 feet and that the plan responds to the city planning and transportation comments.

Opponents at the hearing, including abutter Lucas Somari of 17 Rockdale Ave, said the lots already have been used informally for years and that formalizing a parking facility will not solve what they described as noise, safety and service problems. Somari told the board he had documented incidents in which vehicles associated with the nearby rental…