LETTER
To the editor:
Dan Whitaker has been a member of the Lambertville community for 20 years. Dan and his family live here. Dan’s children attend Lambertville public school. In my experience, if you ask Dan to help you with a charitable project, he is there with his hand extended. Dan wants what is best for Lambertville.
When the community raised objections to the initial expansion of his business he stepped back, listened to his neighbors and redesigned his project. There were still objections; he stepped back again and listened. What Dan is proposing is a very-low-impact parking lot. A much-needed parking lot I might add. Dan has assured me that anyone would be welcome to park in that lot free of charge during the week. In my experience, and I have known Dan for 15 years, Dan is a man of his word.
Lambertville certainly needs more parking. The lack of parking is the single most common complaint in the city. This property is uniquely suited to a public parking lot; it is out of sight yet convenient to the Central Business District, and finally is the only available land to convert to a parking lot.
The zoning board granted a use variance for a parking lot once before and should do so again. There is a clear need for additional parking in the Central Business District.
Some of you objectors may be worried about what comes next. If you have taken the trouble to talk to Dan, he will tell you quite forthrightly what he has planned, and I do not think you will find it at all objectionable. What he has planned preserves the river view and river access that we all love.
I think it is time to let a true neighbor and friend of the community to get on with his business. Dan has worked very hard over the past 20 years building up a good business with an excellent reputation. I do not think it is fair for us to stand in his way as he plans to expand his business.
Dan had the vision to take a boarded-up train station in a town with no business and turn it into a fine dining establishment. Dan believed in Lambertville when the local banker laughed at him for asking for a loan. It is now time for Lambertville to repay that confidence and believe in Dan Whitaker.
Amy Coss Sojourner
Bridge Street
Lambertville

