LONGMEADOW – The Select Board approved a motion to develop a licensing agreement with a private developer who wishes to reconstruct a public parking lot.

Select Board member Mark Gold was the only member of the board to vote in opposition stating he didn’t want a green space in the center of the town removed.

The Colvest Group proposed to take the parking area near St. Mary’s Church and the Mobil Station in the center of the town and undertake a complete restoration including using a different entrance and exit to heighten pedestrian safety as well as make the parking lot compliant to the Americas with Disabilities Act.

The spaces would be reconfigured with angle parking to increase from 13 to 25 as part of the renovation, Peter Lapointe, project manager for Colvest, explained.

The offer to rebuild the parking area was to also provide additional space for Colvest tenants at 467 Longmeadow St. behind the service station. The popular Alex’s Bagels is slated to move into that building.

Colvest has agreed to replace a tree across the street and will build a 125-foot-long retaining wall with a guardrail at the parking lot.

Dana Steele, a civil engineer with J.R. Russo and Associates, explained the plan for stormwater management would not change draining patterns of the site.  He added the changes would be a very minimal increase in the impervious area.

Regardless of the Select Board’s decision Bruce Colton, chair of the Planning Committee, which also attended the presentation, said the project would require site and design plan review from that committee.

Although Gold contested the idea the changes would make the area any safer for pedestrians, Select Board Chair Marie Angelides disagreed. She suggested there would be improvement for pedestrians and parking is currently a “little haphazard.”

Town Manager Stephen Crane maintained the improvement of the parking lot would allow for further commercial use of the nearby building owned by Colvest and would be more evaluable to the town, tax-wise.

Select Board member Tom Lachiusa said, “It adds something different to the town and we should be open to that.”

Gold said the redevelopment of the public parking lot by a private entity was “an intrusion on public land.”