Easy Rider's Surfside Road plan hits potholes
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
At first blush, the Planning Board is not excited about Hans Dalgaard's proposal for a major commercial development at 65 Surfside Road. That proposal includes duplexes, a bike shop and underground parking.

Dalgaard told the Planning Board at its July 23 meeting - through his attorney, Arthur Reade - that he wants to build a new space for his Easy Riders bike rental service that now operates on Boynton Lane on his .27-of-an-acre lot at 65 Surfside Road, which abuts the Shack property.

In addition to the bike shop, Dalgaard hopes to build four two-bedroom duplexes on the property with six underground parking spaces and five on the surface. The proposal also calls for Dalgaard to build a second floor onto the single-family house on the property, build an addition to that building, which will house Easy Riders, and put up another building in the western corner of the lot.

The building and the existing house would each contain two, two-bedroom duplexes. Access to this property will be off a 15-foot way running from Miacomet Avenue down to and past Dalgaard's property.

His plan, although ambitious, did not go over well at the last Planning Board meeting, as chairman Frank Spriggs blasted what he considered to be too many uses on too small a lot with not enough information about what Dalgaard wants to do.

"I think this is one of the worst plans I've seen in the last ten years," he said. "What you think you're going to do with that little piece of land is ridiculous. I don't understand why anyone would want to build what you want to build with that little lot."

Attorney Reade told the board that the Zoning Board of Appeals has already granted Dalgaard a special permit for a commercial use for his bike shop on the property, that the HDC has approved it and that duplex housing is allowed in the RC-2 zone.

"We already have permission from the board of appeals for the commercial aspect of this lot," said Reade. "We believe that housing on lots of this type is permissible and we're not aware of any neighborhood opposition."

Spriggs, however, had a problem with the number of units, both residential and commercial, proposed for what he sees as a very cramped area.

"My problem is the density of the whole thing," he said. "You're talking about eight bedrooms - that's eight parking spots.

"I know we need houses - we need houses badly - but I don't think we should exacerbate this situation in that area like we have here on Fairgrounds Road where we have 20 cars there and out in the street (at the corner of Fairgrounds and Old South roads)."

Spriggs and fellow board members Barry Rector and Nat Lowell were not convinced of the merits of this project, partly because Dalgaard's site plans were confusing. The board members said they want him to make a more lucid presentation of his plans.

"I'm not trying to be negative about this project, but it's not clear enough, you know, like the Heavy Weather project [at 16 Teasdale Circle]," said Lowell. "I, for one, feel like the chairman and Barry, that we need to have more definitive plans; I'd just like to get a clear picture of what they're trying to do down here."

The Planning Board is also concerned about how the project would affect traffic flow in the area, stressing that it did not want to see vehicles accessing the site and parking along Surfside Road and the bike path. Planning Board member Sylvia Howard, speaking for the entire board, asked Dalgaard what sort of improvements to the way he planned to make, and Reade said no improvements were currently planned.

Before continuing Dalgaard's public hearing to the board's Aug. 22 meeting, Spriggs asked that Dalgaard return with a more comprehensible set of plans, and

information on paving the way. I