Joseph Giorno, the owner of a recently announced cigar lounge that will make its home on the second floor of the building at 126 Fayette Street, has decided against going forward with a plan to put a parking lot on the property at 129 Forrest Street.

The parking lot plan required zoning relief due to the property being located within a residential zoning district.

Neighboring residents of the Forrest Street property spoke out against the proposed parking lot during a meeting of Conshohocken’s Borough Council on June 5th. They were concerned about noise, additional traffic on Forrest and drivers who had been drinking.

During the June 5th meeting Conshohocken’s Borough Council decided against taking a position on the zoning application. However, it did vote to provide the cigar lounge with a waiver of off-street parking. This waiver allows the lounge to move forward without having any parking on its property or other designated parking.

Below is a message received by MoreThanTheCurve.com from Giorno after we inquired on the status of the project:

We decided this together as a result of the historical significance of the property and also taking into account the feedback from our neighbors. My grandfather was a stone mason from Italy and built many homes including his own just like the one at 129 Forest street. It has sentimental significance..therefore we decided not to pursue tearing it down to build the the parking lot.

As for 126 Fayette Street. We will be buying the property and investing significantly into it to have it blend more like the other amazing buildings on Fayette. We are also moving forward with creating a beautiful high end Cigar Republic lounge location on the second floor