Mansfield Selectmen Tables Downtown Parking Discussion

The Mansfield Board of Selectmen tabled a discussion on Wednesday that was designed to begin the process of turning the Fales Oil building into a parking lot.

“I just keep thinking back to all of the complaints, founded or unfounded, that there’s no parking downtown,” selectman Olivier Kozlowski said.

The property, now out of use and owned by the town, would need to be demolished and paved, which in total would cost $220,000.

 The biggest argument for the property was to use funds from the Enterprise account to turn the building into a parking lot.

It was deemed that the cost would be too much, since the demolition of the building itself was not geared toward making a parking lot and therefore deemed an inappropriate use by the finance committee.

“I don’t think any private person would spend a quarter of a million dollars to develop a parking lot down there,” selectman George Dentino said. “I can’t even a need for it, where does anybody come up with an actual need when you can park on Winthorp Street or River Street.”

It would cost about $220,000 to make the parking lot, $38,000 of which would be the demolition cost (which selectmen remarked was a bit high for a simple demolition, but concerns about the materials in the building were cited as a possible reason for the cost).

“I think that building just needs to come down,” selectmen chair Jess Aptowitz said.

Ross said that each space would cost about $4,000 a piece.

The motion to start movement on this lot wasn't seconded and therefore tabled at the end of discussion.