Maplewood officials Tuesday night considered Elmwood restaurant’s requests for valet parking spots outside the restaurant on Sutton Boulevard for the second time. Council members, a nearby business owner and an owner of the restaurant discussed it.
The restaurant originally asked for four spots on the east side of Sutton Boulevard and at the last meeting the council reduced that to two.
On Tuesday officials considered a variation of that: two spots on the east side (Monday – Saturday, 5 p.m. – 1 a.m.) and two on the west side (Monday – Saturday, loading zone 6 a.m. – 5 p.m., then valet 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.).
City Manager Marty Corcoran said Tiffany’s Diner and Traveling Tea had asked for the loading zone. He and others commented on how congested and even dangerous it can be when a delivery truck double-parks on southbound Sutton on the bloc. Council member Tim Dunn said a friend of his was killed trying to cross there.
Corcoran said he was trying to accommodate both valet and loading by using the two spots on the west side.
Council member Shawn Faulkingham suggested having just one valet spot on the west side for Elmwood.
See also: Valet signs by Elmwood restaurant are ‘temporary’, Elmwood restaurant kicks off valet parking
Elmwood co-owner Kelling said the reason for two is to avoid double-parking coming off the blind turn from Manchester. “Two would allow for two people to enter, or one to enter and a valet to return a car. We asked for two for a matter of safety.” He said there would be valet parkers on both sides.
Council member Jennifer Schmidt said a lot of business owners have expressed concern about parking.
“They’re potentially there for everybody. We have a lot of restaurants that don’t have valet, so we were trying to accommodate,” Schmidt told Kelling, referring to the council’s decision at the last meeting to reduce valet parking to two spots on the east side of Sutton rather than the four Elmwood requested.
Council member Shawn Faulkingham wondered if there might be room for another parking spot on the west side toward Manchester Road. The motion was tabled for the city to measure to see if there is room for another parking spot there.
