By Scott MacKeen
Times Staff
10/2/08

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Stone Park, designed by restaurant designer Steve Tedesco, will seat 128 patrons upstairs and 32 in a private-dining area in the basement.
Tedesco designed the Davio’s restaurants in Park Square, Boston and at Patriot Place in Foxboro.
Welch, Java Jo’s owner, plans to serve a maximum of 60 customers for lunch and 160 for dinner at the restaurant, which he said will be promoted as
“fine-dining.”
Despite the board’s approval, parking remains a concern.
Shields, who is among those concerned, said residents’ worries are “absolutely legitimate.”
“Right now East Milton is at its parking capacity,” he said.
Daniel Sweeney, a dentist at 559 Adams St. for over three decades, is worried that restaurant customers will use his lot.
“I’m spending a lot of money to fence off that lot,” he said. “There are signs down there, but they don’t care. They’ll park anywhere.”
Michael Costello of Mechanic Street is concerned about parking on his street and on Franklin Street.
“People park there all day because it’s free,” he said.
Shields is similarly worried that Welch’s parking proposals, especially the daytime parking at Dolan’s funeral home, may not be “practical.”
“The reality is people are going to drive around the square and find a space where they can,” he said.
He said it may be possible to post residential only parking signs on Mechanic and Franklin streets to discourage restaurant traffic.
“It’s important people know this is an ongoing process,” he added. “The vote doesn’t just end here.”
The liquor license requires a new approval vote annually.
Selectmen – at a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 2 – will consider Welch’s request for a common victualler’s license in the former site of Video To Go. A hearing is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. at the town hall, 525 Canton Ave.