Victoria Hall On-Street Parking May Vanish

The five on-street parking spaces in front of the Victoria Hall Theater could soon be history due to the conceptual easement granted to the Ensemble Theater Company by the City Council this Tuesday. The Ensemble, which has multi-million dollar plans to transform the Vic into a bigger and modern theater, needed the easement to expand its front sidewalk into the parking lane in order to build a wheelchair accessible ramp. Although Ensemble could create the space necessary by re-modeling its interior, theater backers deemed the project cost prohibitive. City planners and members of the Downtown Parking Committee concurred. So did all members of the city council except for Michael Self.