ZBA Hearing - January 8, 2025

The first floor would be completely the restaurant. We're envisioning a coffee shop, not a full-scale restaurant. As you'll see from the proviso in the RCO letter of support, the proposed hours of operation are 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The first floor would be completely the restaurant we're envisioning.

Excuse me. And then out here would be the outdoor area.

We're envisioning 24 outdoor seats and kind of the same triangle shape that the lot is already set up for.

So going back to the full scale drawings, this is what we are looking at here.

So you have your elevations here. The door would be located on Lime Kiln. So right here, you would walk into the restaurant. There would be room for a small kitchen, some seating, and then, as I'll show in a moment, it would be 24 table seats.

So once again, six four tops and six counter seats inside, and then six outdoor tables, we're envisioning four people per table there.

And again, that would be, that's not a covered porch or anything, that's just an outdoor seating area.

You know, our plan is to have tables with umbrellas, it would most likely be used, you know, in, well, maybe today.

Today's a pretty nice day, but otherwise not in the wintertime.

And then if the board could just see these small circles here, and I'll have the architect speak to this a little further, but these are the barricades that we're envisioning to close off the lot to ensure there are no safety concerns and also to get rid of the curb cuts, which are currently along these frontages here.

This triangle is basically what the board saw as the parking for the existing or previously used barbershop.

so rendering of the inside there would be an ada accessible bathroom some storage rooms

and a stairwell leading to the upstairs along with some storage and a small kitchen

and the upstairs we're requesting uh just a commercial space to be used as further storage

and office um for the restaurant itself we don't intend to rent the space or anything like that

with just a bathroom for administrative staff to use.

This is kind of a more holistic picture of the seating.

So as I described, six indoor tables, four tops, that's 24 seats.

And then these here are the six counter seats and the six outdoor tables.

And then just some elevations and renderings of the property.

As described, you'll see that this is the quarter lot that meets at the intersection of Windcoat and Lime Kiln Pike.

It is a triangular lot, so definitely a unique shape, especially for a single-family home to go on.

We've also, I'll go through this quickly, our application for appeal, our project information form.

And we met with the community on December 17th, where we received unanimous support for this project in trying to work out some of these issues for today with the RCO letter of support and the one proviso that was contained on the letter.

So let me get to it. I spoke to Mr. Cargill, who's the head of the 10th Ward RCO, and he expressed overwhelming support and desire for this project. They really think that a coffee shop restaurant right in this block would be a huge benefit to the neighbors.

There's nothing in the immediate vicinity, as I'll come to show.

There are certainly some comparable variances that have been issued in perhaps like a five or six block radius, but it's a very densely packed residential neighborhood.

So to have a coffee shop for people to be able to come in and grab their coffee on the go or sit down and congregate and have as part of the neighborhood is something that the RCO was very, very much in favor of.

Mr. Starr has longstanding ties to the neighborhood.

So it's really something that he believes is something that he's giving back to the neighborhood that he grew up in and is adding a large benefit to the neighborhood.

So now I'll get to it.

We had originally received this letter of support, which we included in our RCO packet, which contained no provisos.

A few hours later, Mr. Cargill, the head of the RCO, contacted our office, said that they would be sending an updated letter with provisos, which they sent to yourselves at the.

with provisos, which they sent to yourselves at the board, but the email address that they had

for my associate was just incorrectly spelled, so we never received it, hence attaching this

original letter that we received with no provisos. Now, if I may share, the letter that the board

received looks like this, and the proviso that I just want to show the board is this particular

one about capacity. This was just a miscommunication in terms of people. Obviously,

we're looking for more than 10 people on the inside and a capacity of four people on the

outside. The plans that were presented at the RCO meeting are exactly the plans that we're

presenting before the board today. So we did not see this letter until earlier this morning,

at which time I scrambled a little bit and contacted Mr. Cargill to deal with this. Mr.

Mr. Cargill then edited the letter and sent this version of the letter, which just had that proviso regarding capacity removed.

I replied all at CCing Ms. Emerson, and Mr. Cargill also confirmed that this was the appropriate and correct RCO letter of support to be used.

So, Hillary, I don't know if you're listening, but if you could, I'm not sure if you received this email.

Yes, Mr. Sockloff, I did receive the email, but the format that it came in, I couldn't open it.

So if you're able to save it as a PDF and just download it to the upload tool at your convenience, that would be most helpful.

I am going to do my best to be honest with you. Mr. Cargo had edited it on his phone and this

for Mac, I cannot seem to get it to work or allow me to do anything other than open it in the

browser. But he just had an engagement, so I wasn't able to be on this call to confirm. I hope

you did see the email. Yes, I did. I did see the email. Yeah. And perhaps he needs to, when he's

back at his home on his computer he can resend it in a different format or upload it that's what

that's what we intend to do and i am sorry for the confusion oh no no problem no problem thank

you for pulling it up and showing the change because i was not able to see the change but i

did see that a new letter was sent sure so if that's clear to the board as to the little bit

of confusion regarding but we're happy with all of the other provisos the operating hours certainly

the only changes that we're requesting the capacity as demonstrated in the plans,

which once again is 30 indoor seats and 24 outdoor seats.

And as I previously stated, there are a number of variances within about a five to seven block

radius for sit-down restaurants or food prep establishments that have been granted by this

board over the last couple of years. And you can see that they're, you know, in close proximity,

although not directly adjacent or anywhere near this residential neighborhood. That's why we

think this particular restaurant would serve the neighborhood very well.

Our posters for today's meeting hung at the property, zoom in a little further for you.

there they are there and then our certificates of mailing to I believe 102 notices were sent

out to nearby neighbors the the meeting was fairly well attended and I believe we received

15 votes in support and zero in opposition at this time with the board's permission if I can

bring on mr raymond star to testify please star okay raymond star will be allowed to speak

star could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer raymond star raymond r-a-y-m-o-n-d

star s-t-a-r-r firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please

proceed, counsel. Thank you. Mr. Stark, can you just give the board some idea of, you know,

your relationship to the neighborhood and why it is that you wanted to open a restaurant or a cafe

on this parcel? Yes. I was born and raised in that neighborhood. I was born on the 5100 block

of Beachwood Street, which is about three minutes from the location. And my mother currently live

about five minutes from from the location um it's just something that i always wanted to do

in my neighborhood i always wanted to give back um you know i'm i'm fairly young so i want i i want

You know, I'm fairly young, so I want for the other kids that's coming up to look at something positive

for the other kids that's that's

or to have something positive in front of their face that came from a community, that comes from that community.

And hopefully, you know, we can change things around and have kids, you know, do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.

I plan on hiring, you know, kids from the people from the community.

um i plan on having you know uh back to school drives and um and coat drives you know uh out of

the establishment um i just think that this right here will be something very positive to my

community and i and um i plan on doing a good job with it thank you and as as for um you've heard

my testimony or my presentation for the board today yes and is it true and accurate to the

best of your knowledge yes it is and would you adopt it as your own yes and thank you um nothing

further for mr star unless the board has questions we also have uh jared from level nine architecture

who did these plans on the line to answer any any architecture specific questions questions

from the board a question on the uh time i believe you said that the um hours of operation would be

from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.?

That's correct.

Why 3 p.m.?

Mr. Starr, you want to answer that?

Because I just think that that gives everybody

an ample amount of time to be able to get everything,

like the food that they need in the area.

I know a lot of family come home around 3,

So I want to make sure that, you know, that that is that they have their parking and make sure that we're not in the way of the families when they come home.

So that's that's why we decided to close at three.

And is the 5 a.m. actual operating hours as in you'll be you'll you plan to to sell at that time or is that like the opening time for the kitchen to start getting ready?

Opening time for the kitchen to start getting ready.

Okay. So when do you believe it will be open to the public, actually? Is it around 6 or 6.30?

Yes, around 6.

Other questions from the board?

Yes, I have a question. Could you just describe to me what the guardrails are going to be around the perimeter of the triangle?

Are they like individual or do you have, are there like netting in between the piles?

Just a description of the barriers.

Jared are you on the line here Raymond Dino if Jared

can you hear me yes Jared has been allowed to speak

could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer

Jared Blake J-A-R-E-D B-L-A-K-E

we're referring to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

yes I do

Please proceed, Council.

Thank you.

Ms. Graham, if you, Mr. Blake, if you could just kind of describe what you envisioned in preparing these plans for the guardrails around the outside seating portion of the property.

Yeah, they would just be safety bollards, nothing in between them.

Steel, concrete, safety bollards about, I think, three or four feet high, just to provide protection for anyone in there in case any cars go off the street or anything like that.

And how far apart are they generally placed?

I believe they're six feet.

So I guess the idea for Mr. Starr is not to have folks sitting there when the business is closed, correct?

Correct.

Correct.

Can you hear me?

but if there's no uh if the but with these with the piles you can still walk like through across

the triangle correct yeah i think the idea is that the the items that are placed down out there

especially the chairs would be removed we haven't gotten as far as you know if they're going to be

permanent tables or tables that are moved back and forth but but nothing will be um

uh out there during working or during non-working hours that isn't able to be brought

on the side, basically. Okay. I thought he was

trying to create some public space, too.

I don't know.

Look, I think that's certainly

something that Mr. Starr, we can discuss

and we would be amenable to, you know, as

you see, he's very concerned for the neighborhood,

so to allow some public space

would be fine. Oh, no, I was thinking, too, just

in terms of his business and liability-wise.

If he's going to close it off, it's going to be closed off.

It's not, it's just going to be open. But thank you.

But thank you. Thank you. The question is from the board. Yes.

Yeah, thank you.

Quick questions from the board.

Yes.

I'm a little confused about what all is going to be going on here.

There was talk of a coffee shop, but also restaurant.

So what do we what kind of food are we talking about?

Is this actually it's a sit down restaurant, but there was all this talk of it being a coffee shop.

So what are we doing here? Is this like just breakfast and brunchy kind of food?

Is it like a Starbucks where you have coffee, but you have some kind of little snacky kind of food that people can buy or whatever?

How is this going to work in terms of the restaurant piece?

and then I'm not sure about what's going on too on the second floor with the business

and professional and personal services. So Ms. Gaston if I can answer that second question first

no personal services or anything on the on the second floor it's it's just a commercial space

as part of the restaurant because this is in an RSA 5, the two different kinds of uses

are prohibited and any kind of commercial space is also prohibited.

So it's intended to just be office space and storage for the restaurant.

Okay.

All right.

Mr. Starr, I'll let you answer the question about the menu and type of service there.

Hello, can you hear me?

We can.

oh yes um so so the menu it would be like um like uh well it's going to be like like special coffee

so it's so like like like similar to like starbucks like you know how you get the uh the

frat peas and all that you know that type of coffee but we will also have like uh pancakes uh you know

eggs um um uh you know like breakfast items okay so is is that why we have a you have a kitchen

correct kitchen is going to be for preparing in effect these breakfast types foods and what have

correct yes and that's going to be up until the time you close which is at three o'clock

yes okay and then i guess all right and it says this isn't zoning zoning per se but

you're going to have all this you're going to have almost as many seats outdoors with the 24

outdoor seats is you're going to have indoors but the outdoor seating in the winter or inclement

weather i mean how how is that going to affect your i guess i shouldn't be concerned about this

but your business model in that uh for uh a lot of the time it's when it's raining when it's snowing

when it's, you know, bad weather, when it's cold outside and what have you.

I mean, that space is going to be in effect like dead space.

Yes, well, the outside seating is more so for like spring and summer.

So whenever there's inclement weather, as far as rain, snow, you know, anything inclement,

everything will be inside.

The outside seating will be shut down.

Hmm.

Okay, other questions from the board.

Yeah, I have a question about the storage and of the prepared, like of the materials as you need to cook. I mean, your kitchen seems a little small. So I'm wondering about like refrigeration. And I'm also wondering about deliveries.

so there is a small there is a small there's some storage space it's actually not that small

it's about six by eleven right off of the kitchen um we also intend to have refrigeration in the

kitchen of that and uh and then the upstairs would be for additional storage boxes takeout

containers things of that nature um in terms of deliveries you know it's not a very big

establishment there aren't there aren't planned to be that many items it's not going to be daily

deliveries or anything like that so our intention was just to use the the front door for for

deliveries during that five to kind of six six thirty time if uh available um or just as vendors

are able to deliver and then the trash uh jared where did we i know we made accommodations for trash

uh jared where did we i know we made accommodations for trash

could you tell us what that is yeah jared

yes the the the trash is intended to be

uh i'm not sure what we had done with the trash

um oh oh that's right uh there's there's closets underneath the the stair going up

um their mark is storage but but they would be uh trash around there are they vented

yeah they'll be vented okay i guess to question yeah i guess just one last comment i think um

probably a great opportunity for this community Chris the kitchen has to comply with health