St. Mary’s apartment plan spurs parking worries

Parking took center stage Tuesday as the Port Washington Common Council approved a conditional use application that will allow the conversion of the former St. Mary’s Catholic School into as many as 30 apartments.

Neighbors questioned whether the plan by Ansay Development would leave enough parking in the area for both the apartments and St. John XXIII Parish’s St. Mary’s Church, especially in winter.

Charlie Pfrang, 470 N. Powers St., noted that even now parking, particularly in the winter, is “very challenging.”

“What happens during the winter, off-street parking months?” he asked. “With the angle parking, how do we handle the winter parking?”

Craig Noll, 422-424 Johnson St., agreed, saying, “Parking’s a concern right now. There’s not enough.”

Kathryn Boxhorn, 420 N. Johnson St., said that even if Ansay’s plan were to provide enough parking for the apartment tenants, visitors will have no where to park.

While much of the street parking is for public use, she said, “we need to make sure St. Mary’s has adequate parking. That will cause a problem for the congregation.”

Ansay’s plan calls for the current parallel parking on Johnson Street along the church and school property to be converted to angle parking, said Craig Huebner, an engineer with Graef who is working on the project.

The drop-off area in front of the church will also be reconfigured, Huebner said.

The parallel parking on the south side of Van Buren Street will be converted to angle parking, Huebner said, while parking on the north side of the street will remain parallel.

Parking on Powers Street will not change, he said.

There will likely be 15 to 20 fewer parking spaces in winter than there are now for the parish use, Ian McCain, Ansay’s design/construction manager, told the council.

The apartment tenants, he said, will have parking provided on site.

McCain has said parking spaces around the church would be signed to facilitate parish needs.

Ansay has proposed using the school and parish center to create between as many as 30 market-rate apartments, including studio, one, two and three-bedroom units.

The project is dependent on a pay-as-you-go tax incremental financing district and tax credits that would come if the area — including the church, school, parish center and former rectory — is designated a historic district.

Officials with the state Register of Historic Places have toured the site and seem to indicate it would be an acceptable option, McCain has said, adding Ansay is waiting to hear whether the designation will be approved.

Work on the project could begin by the end of the year, with an eight-month construction period expected, officials said, adding the value of the completed project would be between $3.5 million and $5 million.

Aldermen on Tuesday approved rezoning the school campus for an overlay planned unit development and the conditional use permit for the apartment plan.