Kent auto shop agrees to stop street parking after cease-and-desist order

KENT — A longstanding parking dispute between Elizabeth Street residents and antique auto restoration shop and dealership Motoriot may finally be coming to an end, First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer reported at the Board of Selectmen’s Nov. 5 meeting.

“I think we have worked out the issues that were really causing the problems at this point,” reported Lindenmayer, saying that he had received an email from Motoriot that evening that “[expressed] their interest in being a better business.” The concession from Motoriot comes after P&Z authorized a cease and desist order against the Bridge Street establishment on Oct. 28.

The conflict centered on Motoriot employees parking along Elizabeth Street during business hours, which residents said blocked mailboxes, left oil stains and caused traffic congestion during Kent Center School’s drop-off and pick-up times. At the Oct. 28 meeting, Alyssa Helm, president of the Riverview Condominium Homeowners Association on Elizabeth Street, said Motoriot owner Jason Doornick had been consistently rude and antagonistic when approached about the issue.

For his part, Doornick has argued that parking on Elizabeth Street is public, so his employees have the right to park there if they choose. Kent’s zoning regulations, however, state that a business must provide adequate parking for its employees and customers.

Land Use Administrator Tai Kern stated at that meeting that the issue has history: “I’ve tried for two years to bring him into compliance.”

Since the cease-and-desist order was issued, Doornick has been cooperative, Lindenmayer said, noting that the business owner has pledged to follow the parking plan outlined in Motoriot’s zoning permit, which designates specific on-site spaces for employees.

Lindenmayer said that he would remove temporary signs installed on Oct. 27 banning all parking on the northwestern side of Elizabeth Street, confident that the compliance from Motoriot will continue in the wake of the cease and desist order.

Selectman Glenn Sanchez stated his satisfaction with the outcome: “Too bad that it came to that but it had to.”

Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington concurred, stating that she was “glad there’s cooperation.”

Swimming hole update

The BOS was joined by Housatonic River Commission Chair Jesse Klingebiel at the Nov. 5 meeting to discuss options to address an overcrowding issue at a North Kent Road swimming hole that ultimately left the popular riverfront spot closed for the latter part of the summer.

Klingebiel reported that grant funding through the HRC’s community grants program does exist for projects that promote “safe accessibility” to the river, and proposed several ideas to help mitigate the impacts of overuse and littering at the site, such as a gate with a hired attendant to monitor access to the site or an on-site dumpster.

The selectmen agreed that before any permanent solution can be sought, the various stakeholder groups of the site need to come together to work out a collective plan. The site and its access route are owned and managed by several interest groups: the town, the Kent Land Trust, the Housatonic Railroad, Eversource Energy, the Housatonic Valley Association and the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

DEEP has been particularly slow to respond, Lindenmayer reported, but was optimistic that he could get them in the room sometime over the winter for a productive discussion: “We’ll bang on the door.”