September is coming to a close, and sadly, we’re still embroiled in navigating the permit process with the city of Syracuse.
We attended a public hearing with the Planning Commision on September 17. There were three issues we needed a waiver for:
- Live music
- No off-street parking
- Signage (having more than one sign on our building)
The Planning Commission approved our request for a waiver to have live acoustic music, but they do not have the power to give us a waiver to put in a stage to put the performers on.
While our building is zoned as a “local business” (restaurants and bars are allowed), the apartment houses behind us are zoned residential. They are located within 300 feet, but our building is separated by our patio, our parking lot, a fence and tree line plus their parking lot. The people who live in those apartments can’t hear anything we are doing in our building, so the idea that raising our performers up 18″ will impact them at all is absurd.
On the other hand, NOT allowing us to have a stage will drastically impact our ability to run a successful live music venue.
Interesting, the apartments located INSIDE our building aren’t causing the issue, and neither is our residential neighbor located next door. Both are significantly closer to our activities, but because of the zoning classification, it doesn’t matter. Because the former businesses in this location had a stage with live music, this issue was not on our radar as a potential problem – and it’s a deal breaker for our business.
The building we are renting has a parking lot with off street parking, but we do not have use of it for customers. The bulk of it is behind locked gates and the landlord prefers to keep that for his own use, which is his prerogative. Dozens of restaurants and bars in the city of Syracuse do not offer off-street parking. In the course of this conversation, we discovered that the fact that the entire property is paved is a problem – having asphalt in front of your building is considered “dangerous”, and there was some talk of forcing us to rip it up. I have not been able to get a good explanation on that one.
The last issue was signage. We have proposed installing a projecting sign on the building along with some vinyl lettering on the glass door, which I thought was pretty conservative. But, the current code only allows for one sign on the building, so we had to ask for a waiver to put vinyl lettering on our front door.
The Planning Commission approved our waivers, but we had to take the stage out of the floor plan. Our special permit application along with the 3 waivers the Planning Commission approved now has to go to the Common Council on October 9 to be approved. If they approve it, they’ll be able to give us our special permit, our entertainment license, certificate of use and sign permit.
As for the stage, that has to be taken up with the Zoning Board of Appeals. I dropped off the packet of information they need yesterday: their application, a denial of permit form, a property survey, a site plan, a floor plan, a breakdown of what rooms are on each floor of the building, an environmental assessment form, a map, photos of the project and a letter outlining the project and why we should be granted a waiver. And of course, another check, all for the privilege of putting a solo acoustic guitar player up on a platform. We are waiting to hear what the date will be for the public hearing with the Appeals Board.
Does all of this strike you as excessive and ridiculous?
We are talking about a property that has been impeccably maintained and continuously improved in the 4 years the owners have had it, in a neighborhood rife with neglected properties. And we are doing our best to open a business that would be a positive addition to our community without any negative impact on our neighbors.
Everyone is helpful and friendly and “just following the rules”, but nobody is considering that the rules might be nonsensical, shortsighted and discourage the type of development our city neighborhoods desperately need. Why do we have to scratch, claw and fight for every inch of progress?
It almost seems as if the city does not want this kind of business development. I understand that a small business employing only a handful of people does not sound exciting to the powers that be. But think about the businesses that help make our city a cool place – Dinosaur BBQ, Pastabilities, Al’s Wine & Whiskey and the Blue Tusk. These are the places where we send visitors and where we drag out of town guests. Look at Shifty’s and Laci’s Tapas Bar. Look at Cafe Kubal and Recess Coffee and how much they have expanded over the last few years. You have to start somewhere and all of these successful urban businesses started with a hardworking person with a dream and a couple of employees. What if the person trying to launch the next Dinosaur BBQ or Pastabilities type success story gets so discouraged and beaten down that they give up before they even start?
