SUNAPEE — Guests at Sunapee Harbor Cottages may soon fine themselves dining on site, and harbor visitors will be able to avail themselves of the remaining tables.
The Sunapee Planning Board approved a 60-seat restaurant in Sheila Whitcomb’s sizable home Dec. 2. The owner of Sunapee Harbor Cottages came after the business took off and guests coming in late Friday night after a full day’s work often found it hard to find a place to grab dinner — especially in the winter.

To solve the problem, Whitcomb had a restaurant cater “comfort food,” such as beef stew and lasagna on Friday nights, so guests could arrive to a meal simmering in a crock-pot in their cottage. However, Whitcomb said she’d like to be able to serve her guests dinner or breakfast if the need arises, leading to her plan for a restaurant. “I want to cater to my guests,” she said.

Whitcomb said she hopes to serve guests “healthy, simple food” in her home in the winter and on her porch in the summer. Reservations would be required. Since her cottages sleep 33 guests, the remaining tables could be used by visitors to the harbor or local residents. Whitcomb said she plans to work into the plan gradually “based on supply and demand.”
The main hitch in the plan was parking. Sunapee parking requirements call for a space for every three seats in a restaurant and one for every employee. Sixty seats thus require 20 parking spaces, plus four parking spaces for employees and two parking spaces for residents of the property.

Since the six cottages each require 1.25 parking spaces (7.5 spaces rounded up to eight), the board agreed to count those 8 spaces for the 33 people likely taking up seats at the restaurant. The remaining 27 seats, the board held to the three people for one space rule. With employees and residents, the board required a total of 23 parking spaces.
Whitcomb’s lot has only 17 spaces, including those for her cottages. She asked for the remaining spaces to come from municipal parking in the harbor.

Planning board member Bruce Jennings said he thought the request should be granted since people who currently wait up to an hour to eat at local harbor restaurants would have another option, shortening lines, and decreasing people’s parking time in the harbor. Town Manager Donna Nashawaty suggested the board could require Whitcomb to work with Road Agent Tony Bergeron on re-striping the Burkehaven parking lot, which she thought could add three more spaces, half the number Whitcomb requested from the town.

However, the board warned Whitcomb she could run into a problem with restaurant patrons using all the parking in her lot and those renting the cottages than having to find some other place else to park. If signs are placed on spaces reserving them for renters, the spaces could not be counted for the restaurant. Whitcomb said she hadn’t thought about that issue but was confident she could solve it, especially since she would require reservations, giving her an idea of who was coming on a given evening. Jennings added that, since the restaurant is in the harbor, people might also come on foot or by boat.
Alternate board member Allan Davis added that if people couldn’t find a place to park, they would likely go elsewhere.

Whitcomb said she didn’t expect to change the lighting on her property for the restaurant and stressed she was primarily trying to accommodate her guests and would require employees to parking in the Upper Ben Mere parking lot to leave more spaces available in the harbor. “I care about the harbor so I’m not going to do anything to hinder things,” she said.

The year-round restaurant, which will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and ask guests to bring their own alcohol, was approved with conditions — serving cottage guests must remain a priority, Whitcomb will work with Bergeron to re-stripe the Burkehaven parking lot, and employees (not to exceed four) will be directed to park in the upper Ben Mere lot.
The planning board approved the plan 6-1 with Nashawaty abstaining because she is also working on the harbor parking issue. “We spend a lot of time as a planning board identifying this area (Sunapee Harbor) as the place where these uses are going to occur,” Jennings said.

Donna Roberson is a staff reporter for the Argus Champion, a local paper which is published weekly.