Development of South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood stalled by zoning
Zoning restrictions in Knightville, a neighborhood in South Portland, may be driving away potential developers, according to the city’s economic development director.
The Forecaster reported a proposed redevelopment of one property, the Griffin Club, may have fallen through when a potential buyer learned that existing regulations prohibit high-density residential projects.
Joshua J. Reny, assistant city manager and economic development director, told the paper the zoning calls for density and height restrictions and establishes off-street parking requirements.
Reny estimated he has talked to four or five developers about possible projects. But unless the zoning changes, developers can’t tear down older buildings and put in enough units to make development economically feasible, he said.
“There is some contradiction on what people want in order to have a vibrant village,” he said. “You need to be able to attract people, but at the same time people are concerned about parking and traffic.”
The Forecaster earlier this week reported the 50-year-old Griffin Club, a popular, Irish-themed sports bar established in 1968, was evicted from its Knightville digs in a historic building dating back to 1900.
A host of Boston sports greats, like Ted Williams, Dave Cowens, Jim Rice and Luis Tiant, have patronized the bar; and founder Eddie Griffin, who passed away in 1993, was known as a sports promoter and local legend, kind-hearted and charitable to local causes, according to a 2016 Bangor Daily News history of the bar.
The building is across from the properties formerly owned by Martin’s Point Health Care, the Portland-based nonprofit health-care and health-insurance organization, which are under contract to be sold to the South Portland Housing Authority, with plans calling for two affordable housing projects.
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