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Overcast Mixed reaction to Temple Israel plan
Parking and traffic cited as concerns of Lawrence residents
Residents in the neighborhood near Temple Israel have diverging opinions about the proposed subdivision of the temple’s front lawn and the possibility that the Peninsula Public Library will buy the land and build a new library.
Temple Israel is seeking a subdivision of just over half an acre of its property. Its application is awaiting a public hearing before Lawrence’s Planning Board.
Should the subdivision be approved, the temple plans to offer the parcel — and two homes the temple owns on Fulton Street — for sale to the library for $2.5 million to $3 million. Both parties signed a letter of intent last September.
The library is proposing the construction of to build a three-story, 30,000-square-foot facility on the temple’s Central Avenue site to replace its current 50-year-old, 13,000-square-foot structure at 280 Central Ave. The homes would be demolished to make way for a 60-stall parking lot for the library. Its current site has only 23 parking spaces.
“We are in full-force go mode,” said Garrett Gray, an attorney and a former president of Temple Israel, which he is representing. After meeting with Village Building Superintendent Michael Ryder on March 15, Gray said, he was asked to resubmit a zoning analysis. He also said he has not received any negative feedback from the village about a public hearing.
Despite Gray’s enthusiasm, the reaction of a few residents in the area could best be described as tepid. Even those who favor the plan expressed reservations.
Seymour Trepel, who has lived on Fulton Street for 35 years, said he thinks that a new library on the site would be better than condominiums, but there is a need for more parking. “It’s a perfect spot [for the library],” Trepel said, “but the parking situation on this block is bad already, and then the High Holy Days come and it’s hard to get out of your driveway.” He said he hopes that a new library parking lot would alleviate the parking problem.
Fulton Street, a dead-end block, has four homes in addition to the two targeted for demolition, and those homes have residents with several cars, Trepel noted. There is a mansion-sized home being built at the intersection of Fulton Street and Central Avenue.
