Roost Cafe and Coffee shop trying to open on Oak St?

[Kay]

150 seats-Orsay, Blacksheep.  The zoning is CRO and location is a Residential Character Area within the Overlay and restaurants are not allowed.  What they want to do is allowed in CCG-2 by right which is three levels of intensity higher than CRO.  They need to find a different location.  Riverside has 9 commercial character areas and the urban transition area where they can go. 

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

How many seats are going in South Kitchen again? 

[mtraininjax]

How many seats are going in South Kitchen again?

Does it matter? Its on the spot of the old Yesterdays which easily in the day was 150 if not more when there were big shows there. Non-issue.

[Kay]

How many seats are going in South Kitchen again? 

The South Kitchen parcel is zoned CCG-1 and in a Commercial Character Area.  It is allowed by right.  The Overlay is the law in Riverside Avondale and it is a bit discouraging that some believe it can be ignored.  Again, the Roost wants to greatly up zone a CRO parcel in a Residential Character Area.  I hope you can appreciate the difference.

The Overlay reduces requirements in Office, Commercial and UTA areas in return for preventing further commercial intensity in the designated Residential Character Areas.

[avonjax]

Right or wrong, good or bad Riverside and Avondale get ticked about everything that wants to open. I just love the empty building sitting there. I can't imagine it will ever be anything but empty if this gets squashed. Oh well. Let me remind everyone that I lived in the area for over 30 years so I'm not just an outsider giving an opinion. And I recall how many people complained about Orsay.....

[JaxAvondale]

Right or wrong, good or bad Riverside and Avondale get ticked about everything that wants to open. I just love the empty building sitting there. I can't imagine it will ever be anything but empty if this gets squashed. Oh well. Let me remind everyone that I lived in the area for over 30 years so I'm not just an outsider giving an opinion. And I recall how many people complained about Orsay.....

I understand the zoning laws and overlays but it is amazing that people are so against this project. I started following this project in November. I attended the meeting on Thursday night because I wanted to understand the issues. The people and groups that opposed this project are vehemently opposed to Roost Cafe.

[Adam White]

Right or wrong, good or bad Riverside and Avondale get ticked about everything that wants to open. I just love the empty building sitting there. I can't imagine it will ever be anything but empty if this gets squashed. Oh well. Let me remind everyone that I lived in the area for over 30 years so I'm not just an outsider giving an opinion. And I recall how many people complained about Orsay.....

I understand the zoning laws and overlays but it is amazing that people are so against this project. I started following this project in November. I attended the meeting on Thursday night because I wanted to understand the issues. The people and groups that opposed this project are vehemently opposed to Roost Cafe.

Of course they are. They probably wouldn't have shown up if they were only mildly opposed.

I appreciate both sides of the issue - but I can't understand why things have to get so negative. It's perfectly acceptable for reasonable people to have different opinions on a subject.

[JaxAvondale]

Right or wrong, good or bad Riverside and Avondale get ticked about everything that wants to open. I just love the empty building sitting there. I can't imagine it will ever be anything but empty if this gets squashed. Oh well. Let me remind everyone that I lived in the area for over 30 years so I'm not just an outsider giving an opinion. And I recall how many people complained about Orsay.....

I understand the zoning laws and overlays but it is amazing that people are so against this project. I started following this project in November. I attended the meeting on Thursday night because I wanted to understand the issues. The people and groups that opposed this project are vehemently opposed to Roost Cafe.

Of course they are. They probably wouldn't have shown up if they were only mildly opposed.

I appreciate both sides of the issue - but I can't understand why things have to get so negative. It's perfectly acceptable for reasonable people to have different opinions on a subject.

Agreed! I wish there was more civility.

[Tacachale]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

[JeffreyS]

Just stop any outside seating at 8pm and tell any people already seated they need to move inside at 9pm.

[ProjectMaximus]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

Just send those businesses over to Murray Hill please!

[JaxJersey-licious]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

Just send those businesses over to Murray Hill please!

Speaking of which, any update on your plans to open a place there?

[ProjectMaximus]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

Just send those businesses over to Murray Hill please!

Speaking of which, any update on your plans to open a place there?

Talking about my plans to open up my own business? Or getting businesses into our vacant units? I don't recall discussing my own business plans here on MJ but no, that is on hiatus for now as my plate (actually the whole table) is very full. But regarding potential businesses opening up...we do have several things in the works. Still negotiating but hopefully will have some news before too long. There are a lot of rumblings about quite a number of businesses on the cusp of getting solidified here in the Edgewood corridor.

[JaxJersey-licious]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

Just send those businesses over to Murray Hill please!

Speaking of which, any update on your plans to open a place there?

Talking about my plans to open up my own business? Or getting businesses into our vacant units? I don't recall discussing my own business plans here on MJ but no, that is on hiatus for now as my plate (actually the whole table) is very full. But regarding potential businesses opening up...we do have several things in the works. Still negotiating but hopefully will have some news before too long. There are a lot of rumblings about quite a number of businesses on the cusp of getting solidified here in the Edgewood corridor.

I apologize for hijacking this thread because of my personal nosiness, but that being said I understand these things take due diligence, time, and lots of patience even in a burgeoning neighborhood such as Murray Hill.

This idea for the Roost cafe would be great for the Hill. Without knowing that much about the machinations, this seemed like a great idea that filled a void in that neighborhood that area residents embraced at the time. But perhaps because more space became available or the initial reaction to their plans showed enough demand or they need the extra hours to turn enough of a profit to make this possible this turned out as a classic example of "mission creep" and poor communication between business and neighbors.

Regardless, I hope they can work this out. And I hope yours and other future endeavors in Murray Hill can learn lessons from all this.

[mtraininjax]

It seems to be the nature of neighborhood business in Riverside at the moment. Every issue becomes a pitched battle.

Spoken like a person who does not live in the neighborhood!

Every issue is not a battle, its about quality of life. How would you like a neighbor who lied to you and said, Oh yeah, I was going to have room for 60 people have a nice little cafe for people to enjoy, get everyone excited about the project, cause there is really nothing for a couple blocks, only to be LIED TO and you have to find out from public filings that the douchebag developer wants to make it 150 seats and turn your quiet area of Riverside into an outdoor music park on weekends, clogging the streets, leaving trash, and turning your neighborhood, your investment into a trashy version of what it formerly was?

Are there not enough empty spots in Springfield? Hey, why not get some of the Springfield Zealots after this project, I am sure that Main Street is in need of a replacement after 9th and Main had its hey-day, the Pearl left and the area struggles to grow a commercial base. Is a 150 seat boom box the only thing that Stein can find for that space?

Murray will eventually find that it does not have the infrastructure to handle increased traffic and cars, it already has issues around the 1100 block as cars block the intersection of Mayflower and Edgewood. Edgewood is also a race track between 10 and 17 at times of the day, that will be addressed, you think you want the success now, beware, its a double-edged sword. Ask the people around King Street if they enjoy the new beer district and the new attention to the area....