The city's planning staff has given its endorsement to a new Kilroy's Bar n' Grill in Broad Ripple after the owner agreed to scale back an outdoor seating area from 4,800 square feet to 2,000 square feet. An amended site plan filed Aug. 1 shows the smaller outdoor dining area would allow for the retention of nine additional parking spaces. The restaurant and bar plans to take the entire 7,750-square-foot building at 831 Broad Ripple Ave., now home to a Cardinal Fitness. Some neighbors have opposed the proposal, wary of another large bar and concerned the outdoor dining area would remove too many scarce parking spaces. The Kilroy's plan provides for 46 parking spaces, far fewer than the 119 required under the city's development standards. The new user, though, should not change the "intensity of automobile traffic" since most visitors in Broad Ripple "walk to multiple destinations," the planning department noted in its report. "The outdoor seating would be in character with the pedestrian friendly, village atmosphere of the area." The city's Board of Zoning Appeals is scheduled to vote on a variance request for Kilroy's on Aug. 16.
It should be no problem getting the variance through the BZA. Fellow blogger Pat Andrews has detailed how the BZA panels haven't met a variance request in Broad Ripple they don't like. Tony Rezko should have plied his trade in Indianapolis instead of Chicago. He would be living the good life in Carmel instead of sitting in a cold jail cell for many years to come.
7 comments:
The City's planning staff is on record as being against Kilroy's because of the huge disparity in parking that would be availabe versus what's required. parking sitaution. They make the outdoor dining area slightly smaller, giving it nine more parking spaces and suddenly the City's planning staff is on board/
Huh? Gee, do you think this deal got greased politically? Uh, yes. The Ballard Way is Pay to Play. Someone must have paid.
Men like Greg Ballard give politics a dirty name!! Sure hope he is not reelected. Yes, Tony Rezko would have managed just fine in Indianapols.
Wow - this one does stink. Ballard's people need to keep their hands off zoning and variance decisions.
Our system is broken and that is just the way some people want it.
Jim Atterholt?
Ballard had nothing to do with the position change, nor did any of the Department or Administration gatekeepers. Now, the gatekeepers have had their hands in other petitions - usually when the city is handing out money and companies with names beginning with "E" or "S" - surprise, surprise!
It is really galling for the BRVA to expect the rest of us to fork over one-third of the upfront moneys derived from the bad parking meter lease deal to give to a private developer to build a parking garage to fix their self-inflicted parking problem. Variance after variance over the past decade has totally exacerbated this problem and then they expect even more variances. Will they expect us to subsidize the construction of yet another parking garage in a few years when this new garage proves inadequate to address the problem? Let those business owners take up a collection among themselves and build a garage with their money at their risk if they want to flood the area with dozens of bars and restaurants. This new parking garage won't make a dent in the problem to the extent there is a problem because of all the neighborhood parking spaces that are going to be eliminated once the residential permit parking is implemented.
Now, you hit the essence of the problem; this business association and others who have been clamoring for a garage for two decades and supported many of the variances should have created an business improvement district and built the garage themselves and whatever else was required to improve their business district.
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