Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Crabby Joe’s plan questioned over traffic, on land and on lake

Date: 2/23/2022

SOUTHWICK — The proposal to bring back Crabby Joe’s restaurant with a newly constructed marina faced continued scrutiny in a Planning Board hearing Feb. 15, with at least one board member warning he would not accept the plan as it stands.

Applicant Ken Egleston and Ryan Nelson from R. Levesque Associates returned with an updated plan for the return of the lakeside restaurant after receiving feedback from the board and residents during the previous public hearing.

In their original plan they proposed three docks with 20 boat spaces each, and space for a possible future fourth dock. In their updated plan, the fourth dock was scrapped completely, and the three docks and their fingers were adjusted for more even spacing, and would be built farther away from the Congamond Road bridge, a chokepoint for traffic on the lake.

The new plan also included an adjustment to the parking layout, which had been heavily scrutinized by the board in the previous meeting. The lot now includes 59 spaces, with 48 designated for the restaurant, and 11 reserved for marina tenants.

Though the parking lot plan was adjusted, board members expressed concern over its effect on nearby residents. They worried that houses would have headlights shining into their windows well into the night, as Egleston said that the restaurant could be open until 2 a.m. He offered to add shrubbery to that section, but the board insisted that a fence be installed instead.

One of the main concerns over the 60-boat marina is that it will add to overcrowding on the lake. Southwick’s Lake Management Committee expressed this concern to the Planning Board, saying that Congamond Lake is already far above the recommended capacity for safe boating.

Planning Board member Marcus Phelps showed concern over the number of parking spaces designated for boating spots. Egleston said that a marina parking lot should have one parking space for every two boating slips. Forty of the marina berths are designated for rental, with the remaining 20 for general boat parking.

Phelps said that there should be at least 20 car parking spots because of the 40 boat rental spots in the dock, nearly double what Egleston’s plans showed.

Planning Board associate member Jessica Thornton said that she had a hard time accepting Egleston’s idea that each boater only needs half a parking space, and that he would then be providing even fewer designated spaces than that.

“I think we all agree that we want to see this place in use and that a restaurant reopening there would be great to have service for transient boaters,” said Thornton, “but is there enough parking in there for you to have 40 people paying to park their boats there.”

Phelps said that, because of how the parking plan stands right now, he would not accept the plan in a vote.

Nearby resident Donna Cabana said that the area is short on parking as it is, and that when Crabby Joe’s was open previously, people sometimes parked in her yard.

Egleston insisted that they would not have the same parking problems that the previous iteration of the restaurant had, in part because the indoor capacity will be lowered from 200 to 95. In the winter, when the deck is closed, he said that number could rise to 130.

Another nearby resident, Jennifer Tibbets, said that she was concerned over additional pollution and overcrowding of the lake by allowing at least 60 more boats on the water, and that she feared an increase in noise pollution from the restaurant.