Well apparently the planning commission staff is recommending AGAINST granting the parking deviation. They believe the 7 on-street spaces in front of the restaurant as well as the 7 spaces off-street "dedicated" to the restaurant development are not enough, despite the availability of nearly 30 other spaces in the parking lot and plenty more on-street.
If anyone is able to and so inclined, please attend the next meeting of the Planning Commission to voice/show your support for the restaurant opening in Murray Hill. The commission is meeting this Thursday April 20, 2017, at 1:00 PM. City Hall St. James Building, 1st Floor – Council Chambers. 117 West Duval Street, Jacksonville, Florida 32202
If you are unable to make it (like me) then also consider sending letters to Commission Chair Daniel Blanchard at Daniel.blanchard@comcast.net and Secretary Patricia Sales at pmacer@coj.net. Please copy the attorney's office at CTrimmer@dmphlaw.com so they can take hard copies to the hearing. Sample letter below:
Daniel E. Blanchard, Chair
Planning Commission
214 North Hogan Street, Suite 300
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Re: Applications for 947 S. Edgewood Avenue AD-17-21, E-17-32, WLD-17-12
Dear Chairman Blanchard:
We support the proposed development of El Jefe restaurant at 947 S. Edgewood Avenue. We are particularly excited to welcome this family-friendly Tex-Mex establishment because it offers something the neighborhood is sorely lacking – a restaurant that is open seven days a week and includes dinner service.
We understand that there are concerns regarding the impact of parking on the neighborhood. While this is an understandable concern given the parking issues that have evolved in some neighborhoods, we do believe an administrative deviation should be granted to El Jefe. The 900 block of Edgewood Avenue offers on-street parking which is underutilized by the existing businesses. This is particularly true in the evening when El Jefe restaurant expects to have peak hours of operation. Additionally, there are more than thirty spaces available behind the shopping center in a shared lot that is underutilized throughout the day. Considering the local demands and the parking that is available, we do not believe the surrounding businesses or residential neighborhoods would suffer as a result of El Jefe’s addition to the neighborhood.
We encourage the Planning Commission to approve Applications AD-17-21, E-17-32, and WLD-17-12 so that residents and business owners may begin enjoying El Jefe’s positive impact on the Murray Hill area.
A few observations:
1. Some of this is semantics. You have three contiguous parcels making up a single retail development. Yet, your application only counts the seven off-street parking spaces located on the same parcel occupying the Curry Thomas space. Have you ever considered replatting your strip center as a single parcel? Doing so means you'd have 35 off-street and 16 on-street parking spaces on Edgewood and Melba at your disposal. So really, your overall site has 51 total existing spaces to play with before figuring out what your proper reduction request should be.
2. I don't get the "Murray Hill is not a character area that allows for outdoor cafe style seating". The context lends itself well to it, so who's actually deciding what and what isn't a character area and where is that defined within the zoning code? On the other hand, I'd argue that it certainly isn't a character area where general CCG-1 zoning conditions should apply. It's a neighborhood that would certainly benefit from COJ revising it's outdated and inconsistent zoning ordinance to better fit neighborhoods of different physical traits and densities across the city. Currently, CCG-1 works more like one size fits all. Unfortunately, you're being hit over the head with faulty policy. Nevertheless, that won't help much today. So if they don't allow you outdoor seating, as a design alternative, you can treat window openings like Tradewinds next door or Hawkers in Five Points.
3. I assume the request for +150 seats is because that's the minimum size for a restaurant to be licensed to serve liquor? Could the Florida Legislature local bill J-2 being considered for Murray Hill and Springfield, which reduces the 150 to 100 help? In other words, does El Jefe's numbers work at 100 seats while also being able to serve liquor? If so, you may want to find out the status of that bill and chances of it passing. It could be a gamechanger because it would certainly reduce your amount of parking needed.
4. Although there are other businesses using the +30 space off-street lot, how many are open at night? Do Tradewinds and A Tavern currently fill that lot at night and the on-street spaces on Melba Street at night? If not, could you dedicate an additional 10 to 14 spaces to El Jefe? Doing so would give El Jefe close to 28 dedicated parking spaces, which would put you in the same range as Larry's AD request (AD-17-14). Larry's, which is right down the street, wants to go from 46 to 12. However, they are claiming they are working with an adjacent retail center to use their parking at night, which increases their dedicated number to 28. Staff recommends approval with conditions on that project, so that's probably the range you need to be in to argue precedence.
5. You probably can squeeze in some additional spaces to your existing off-street parking area. For example, looking at the existing site plan submitted, if you cut off the "access" to Jasmine Place, you could gain 2 or 3 more spaces. In reality, unless there's an easement through there, there's nothing from stopping the adjacent property owner from putting up a wall and turning the pavement behind their building into off-street parking for their own tenants. Despite needing to extend the length of those spaces behind Tradewinds, you could probably get a few more spaces around the Kirby's building too. Another option is restripping as a one way in (via Post) one way out (via Melba) with diagonal parking. That would reduce the width dedicated to the parking lot's access lanes, possibly freeing up some existing pavement for additional parking stalls. In the end, you won't meet the suburban off-street parking requirements you're being hit over the head with but even something as little as 10 additional spots may help since staff obviously believes going from 45 to 14 is too extreme.
6. Have you talked with Jim Love about your situation? If not, you should. He seems to have a good handle on the issues involving Edgewood Avenue and he desires to see it become the "character area" that staff currently mentions it isn't.
Anyway, IMO, you have quit a few options you can take to attempt to get the recommended denial changed. However, I do believe you will need to go above and beyond having residents submit letters of support. Ultimately, your application needs an answer/solution to how you're going to deal with vehicles headed to the restaurant, once those 14 spaces identified in the application are filled. At quick glance, Larry's (AD-17-14) in the same Planning Commission Agenda packet provides you with the perfect answer.
http://www.coj.net/departments/planning-and-development/docs/current-planning-division/planning-commission-docs/2017/pc-book/pc-book-04-20-2017.aspx
