A busy mental health center may see an improvement in its parking for clients and staff, after the Derry Conservation Commission reviewed a request for more parking spaces at its July 14 meeting.
Luke Hurley of Gove Environmental Services and Chris Tymula of MHF Design represented Centerpoint Management, owners of the Center for Life Management at 10 Tsienneto Road. While the Conservation Commission did not mark any red flags, it delayed crafting a formal approval until after a site walk scheduled for July 23.
Hurley said the intent of the owners was to increase parking in the rear of the building. “There is the existing two-story building, then it drops down in the back and goes up again,” he said. “Our intent is to put a strip of parking in the back. At peak hours it maxes out and you’ve got people parking on the grass or waiting in line for someone to pull out.”
Tymula said the net increase from the parking spaces would be 53 new spots in front of the wetland crossing, and reducing five existing spaces to make a total of 174.
But member Dennis Wiley said that when the project was originally approved, there had been plans to make a footbridge across the wetland crossing and to landscape a park on the other side.
“One of the major issues,” Tymula said, “is that the Center for Life Management (CLM) is a nonprofit. They felt it was too costly to install a bridge.”
Tymula said the design team went to the Technical Review Committee on June 27 and at that time, the Department of Public Works expressed concern about the three culverts planned. “Since that meeting, we’ve looked at it and reduced the three to two, or maybe even one simple box culvert,” he told the Commission.
The catchbasin for stormwater will discharge into an above-ground infiltration basin, Tymula said.
The Commission agreed to schedule a site walk for Wednesday, July 23, at 6 p.m.
