Lattitude wants to add a banquet room as well as seat people outdoors on a patio.
Lattitude Restaurant on Memorial Avenue in West Springfield is seeking two special permits allowing for expansion.WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing Monday at 7 p.m. on two special permits allowing for expansion at Lattitude Restaurant that would include adding a banquet room in the adjacent former Memo’s Restaurant space.
Lattitude Realty LLC has applied for the special permits because the restaurant building is a nonconforming use of a building in a structure that does not conform to the property’s zoning designation Business A.
Information on file in the Planning Department office states that the project calls for an addition of 796 square feet to the rear and side of the existing 2,997-square-foot building at 1336-1344 Memorial Ave. It also calls for demolition of a three-family apartment house at 19-23 Exposition Terrace to provide additional parking.
Lattitude Realty LLC earlier this year got permission from the board to increase the restaurant’s seating capacity from just under 100 to 206, according to its attorney, Benjamin M. Coyle. He said it now wants to increase its total indoor seating capacity to 358 as well as add 32 seats on a proposed patio along Memorial Avenue. He declined to say how much the project will cost.
The scenario also calls for an apartment on the second floor of the building and a retail bakery, according to documents on file in the Planning Department office.
The Zoning Board of Appeals on June 26 conditionally approved the two special permits 3-0 with board chairwoman Lisa M. Beauvais, Chester A. Zymroz and Alexander Villar voting in favor of the project.
Approval was predicated on Lattitude Realty keeping its lease on land across the street from it on Exposition Terrace that provides 48 off-street parking spaces.
The board also stipulated that the three parcels at 1330 Memorial Ave., 1344 Memorial Ave. and 19 Exposition Terrace involved in the project be combined under one deed and that the project include handicapped parking in conformance with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.
The property at 1344 Memorial Ave. was formerly occupied by Memo's, which in January moved to 1272 Memorial Ave.
The property on which the restaurant is situated is owned by the Margaret L. Balestri Real Estate Trust of West Springfield. Timothy J. Ryan, the trust’s attorney, said his client is in the process of selling the restaurant property to Lattitude Realty.
Ryan said a purchase and sale agreement has been signed and a closing is expected to take place within the next couple of weeks.
Management reached at the restaurant Thursday declined to comment on the project.