By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — The second time was the charm for the Naswa Resort which on Thursday got approval from the Motorcycle Technical Review Committee for a Bike Week site plan that includes a beer tent.

By a vote of 4-2, the committee said the Naswa can have 30 vendors, 34 parking spaces and a 50-foot by 80-foot beer tent on its parking lot on the opposite side of Weirs Boulevard from the resort.

Earlier, by a similar vote, the committee rescinded its prior requirement that the Naswa conduct a study of vehicular and pedestrian traffic before its site plan request was considered.

Citing concerns over pedestrian safety and the fear of stretching municipal emergency services too thin, the committee last month voted unanimously to continue the Naswa’s application until after the resort had done the traffic survey.

Attorney Paul Fitzgerald, who represents the Naswa, said the survey was moot at this time of the year anyway because the heavy blankets of snow posed one problem while the more obvious challenge is that a survey of potential Bike Week traffic should be done during Bike Week

Fitzgerald stressed that the committee was over-stepping its bounds by requiring the traffic survey because of the potential off-site consequences if the Naswa application was approved. The City Council has made it clear that it supports Bike Week activities in certain areas and that Weirs Boulevard is one of those areas, he said.

His client’s application has met "all of the requirements" pertaining to the city ordinance that regulates Bike Week site plans, said Fitzgerald, adding that it was well known in the community that the Naswa and its owners, the Makris family, "do things right" when it comes to the operation of their business.

Doing things "right" means thorough planning for a number of contingencies, including for the safety of Bike Week patrons, Fitzgerald said.

He took exception with remarks by MTRC members last month that there was no appropriate place for pedestrians to walk to and from the Naswa, saying that there was by his estimation, 8 feet of flat surface on the northern side of Weirs Boulevard that could be used for a walkway, as the Naswa had proposed last year.

Laconia Police Lt. John MacLennan, who suggested the idea of the Naswa doing a traffic study, was unconvinced by Fitzgerald’s argument.

"This is a very narrow area. The traffic is horrendous in this area," during Bike Week said MacLennan.

While State Police do a great job of patrolling that portion of Weirs Boulevard during Bike Week, MacLennan said he felt "pretty strongly," that despite Fitzgerald’s assertion to the contrary, no troopers would be detailed to the Naswa specifically and the responsibility would fall upon the LPD.

Likewise, the lieutenant also undercut Fitzgerald’s belief that the Naswa, which is located about a quarter mile away from the epicenter of Bike Week on and near Lakeside Avenue, would not attract many pedestrians from there.

That wasn’t the entire point, said MacLennan, as the Naswa site itself would be filled with pedestrians. He noted that the resort plans to have 30 parking places as well as a beer tent with a capacity for up to 500 people, both of which would produce pedestrian traffic.

The Naswa does a great job of patrolling its property, but once a person steps onto Weirs Boulevard, "they are our problem," said MacLennan.

As a pedestrian safety measure, the Naswa has said it will install barriers and fencing on Weirs Boulevard, but MacLennan has said previously that there was simply "no place" for pedestrians to walk in safety on that part of the road.

Fitzgerald questioned MacLennan’s ability to be objective on the Naswa application as MacLennan in February said the resort’s proposed Bike Week site location was fundamentally a bad one for any type of activity.

"There is no plan that these folks can advance that will meet the requirements of your department," Fitzgerald told MacLennan.

Watching the MTRC work on the Naswa request for more than an hour and a half on Thursday, a frustrated City Manager Eileen Cabanel reminded the committee that it was to consider only the application before it and not the larger question of what constitutes the geographical borders of Bike Week.

She urged the committee to stop speculating about the latter, since it was a City Council matter, and to simply vote one way or another on the Naswa application.

After the MTRC approved the Naswa’s site plan request, MacLennan attempted to amend it to require the Naswa to pay for the city’s assigning off-duty police officers and firefighters to be detailed to the resort during Bike Week, but the motion failed on a vote of one in favor, five opposed.

Also Thursday, the committee approved a site plan for the Paradise Beach Club, 322 Lakeside Ave., for a beer tent and vendor and storage spaces.