QUESTION: Does the city’s newest plan for moving Sesquicentennial Park propose to take part of the private property beside the city’s public parking lot?
ANSWER: An overhead drawing in the request for qualifications from Stewart Inc. shows what are labeled as “Nine new parking spaces” beside the new location for the Sesquicentennial Park on the front portion of the parking lot on West Elm Street.
But those new spaces would appear to be pictured on land, immediately to the right (or east) of the city’s parking lot, partially on land owned by Graham attorney Tony DiLello.
Shown the drawing and asked his response, DiLello said he had not seen the concept drawing, had not been asked about the idea by the city, and “didn’t like it.”
[Story continues below photo of Tony DiLello’s driveway and parking lot and consultant’s drawing.]
Asked if he would have any interest in selling part of his property to the city, he gave an emphatic, “No.”
DiLello also put himself in the camp of downtown business owners who prefer the current park’s location.
“They should have fixed the park where it’s at,” he said.
He noted that in his 31 years in practice, parking in downtown Graham has always been a challenge. “Parking is already tough, and I don’t see a need to change it,” he said, questioning the reduction of public parking in the city lot next to his building, as proposed by the new plan adopted Tuesday by the city council.
DiLello didn’t like the fact that the drawing appeared to encroach on his land with half of the nine new spaces, but also appeared to show a driving path through his lot.
DiLello said the current driveway is “not very wide,” but the drawing show another row of diagonal parking and a path in between.
He says he already has to police delivery trucks and some individuals who attempt to cut through his property, or attempt to use one or more of the nine private parking spaces intended for his law office and the accounting firm that occupies part of his building.
“I didn’t like the idea [of moving the park] before I saw this,” he told the newspaper after reviewing the rendering, and he likes it even less now.
DiLello also challenged whether the city could use eminent domain to take his property. He noted that his building is historic, having been built in 1910, and he is subject to all sorts of requirements to maintain the historic nature of the building.
He joked, “Maybe the parking lot is historic, too.”
[Editor’s Note: The overhead rendering also appears to show the new park extending into West Elm Street, itself, which would, at some point, require approval from the state department of transportation, since it is a DOT roadway.]
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