Is Riverside/Avondale Ready For Mellow Mushroom?

[Know Growth]

The real questions at this point are:


What is RAP's position on the application (it was submitted at 220 seats, a net increase of 113 seats to the commercial area)?

My guess is it is no longer a question of whether or not we are "Ready" or "Like" or "Dislike" a certain venue,  some will say "Know" to Avondale 'Growth',RAP and others will explore in depth a combo PUD Rezoning,Administrative Deviation & Zoning Exception that begs for further scrutiny,is likely better suited for an intense commercial corridor and is far from " Done Deal" Seal.

RAP and others can refer to existing rule,precedent.

For instance,regarding 220/113:
Apparently,under City Code MM would require 134 parking spaces,but is providing 21 spaces overall.
Some would say that other restaurants within the Shoppes are not held to this standard.

For many years,decades,available parking met increasing demand and acommodated a more viable commercial area.

A couple of years ago,1,600 sf/82 seat 'Town' (Application Number E-10-76) was approved. The Planning Department imposed certain conditions,including the concept that the proposed use would not harm the character and function of adjacent neighborhoods,proposed use precludes non residential traffic in to adjacent neighborhoods.(COJ FLUE 3.2.4)

At this point, a seemingly mere additional need for 113 spaces represents a looming critical deficiency;
the deficient 113 spaces is more than the total number of parking spaces currently striped in front of all the Shoppes between Talbot & Dancy.

There are standards and criteria to be met with zoning exceptions that could promote public health,safety,convenience,welfare.

Bike racks likely to offer little or no viable mitigation for this combo PUD/ZE/AD 6,000 /4,000 sf venue.

Now there is a name for a local brew,defiantly served: PUDZEAD

A nationally promoted "Best Place",such episodes could place R/A in the headlines. Will the coverage uplift,or detract??

Onward!

[JeffreyS]

Stephen we need to remember the object here is to stymie economic progress not to build more parking.  Once the parking starts getting built to meet the new requirements RAP and the Council will likely rush to correct Mr. Love's error.  Particularly when historic stock is no longer as valued since you have to build parking anyway now. 

[Know Growth]

The real questions at this point are:


What is RAP's position on the application (it was submitted at 220 seats, a net increase of 113 seats to the commercial area)?

My guess is it is no longer a question of whether or not we are "Ready" or "Like" or "Dislike" a certain venue,  some will say "Know" to Avondale 'Growth',RAP and others will explore in depth a combo PUD Rezoning,Administrative Deviation & Zoning Exception that begs for further scrutiny,is likely better suited for an intense commercial corridor and is far from " Done Deal" Seal.

RAP and others can refer to existing rule,precedent.

For instance,regarding 220/113:
Apparently,under City Code MM would require 134 parking spaces,but is providing 21 spaces overall.
Some would say that other restaurants within the Shoppes are not held to this standard.

For many years,decades,available parking met increasing demand and acommodated a more viable commercial area.

A couple of years ago,1,600 sf/82 seat 'Town' (Application Number E-10-76) was approved. The Planning Department imposed certain conditions,including the concept that the proposed use would not harm the character and function of adjacent neighborhoods,proposed use precludes non residential traffic in to adjacent neighborhoods.(COJ FLUE 3.2.4)

At this point, a seemingly mere additional need for 113 spaces represents a looming critical deficiency;
the deficient 113 spaces is more than the total number of parking spaces currently striped in front of all the Shoppes between Talbot & Dancy.

There are standards and criteria to be met with zoning exceptions that could promote public health,safety,convenience,welfare.

Bike racks likely to offer little or no viable mitigation for this combo PUD/ZE/AD 6,000 /4,000 sf venue.

Now there is a name for a local brew,defiantly served: PUDZEAD

A nationally promoted "Best Place",such episodes could place R/A in the headlines. Will the coverage uplift,or detract??

Onward!

Worth repeating     Newzzzz

[Know Growth]

If you do residential only permit parking on public streets, you definitely would need to charge the users something.  If you don't, you're passing the costs of implementing and maintaining the system on everyone else.

Lake,seems folks like you better than Stephen around these parts,but a few have wondered about your personal i interests.

[Know Growth]

It is 1:30 am,do you have an alarm go off when I post?


Just Imagine!!!!
With MM open to 2 am we could meet,talk things over in Person.Yea Jacksonville!!!
Then hop on our bikes.........

[Know Growth]

the neighborhood was mentioned in a list two years ago by the American Planning Association, Know Growth.  The very existence of the growing commercial areas---all five districts---- were specifically listed as a major reason for the designation.

It is 1:30 am,do you have an alarm go off when I post??

Here we swerve from the crux of my post.So be it.


Understood.
It is a question of balance,limits,and indeed "Planning" at stake.

Current events have drawn certain players in to the RAP,Citizen fold that could hardly be cast as (horrors!) anti growth,such as former Clay County Planner Susan Fraser. Susan played pivotal role during key Brannon Chaffee Sector Plan/Beltway proceedings.We had then a contentious relationship.Her current concerns with MM PUD/ZE/AD are welcome,and telling.

Almost as if a Carl Hiaasen script.....

Onward!

yes, onward with your parking lots and torches.  Don't look back.

Read and study more,Post less

[Jaxson]

I first fell in love with Mellow Mushroom when I was visiting Athens for a conference of college journalists.  Before making the trip from Douglas, I asked various schoolmates about the local flavor as I wanted to have a college town experience.  More than a handful of people recommended Mellow Mushroom and I knew where my first stop would be after my assistant editor Tom Costello and I checked into our hotel room.  Tom and I made a beeline to the Mellow Mushroom, where we had a very memorable dinner, made especially unforgettable, by our meeting Michael Stipe that evening.  That is the Mellow Mushroom that I want to remember.  Today, I believe the Mellow Mushroom has turned into the kind of chain that I would have been dissuaded from choosing if I were a college student today who was looking for something distinctly Athens.  Heck, there's even a Mellow Mushroom in...horrors... Gainesville!  I do not begrudge them the right to expand (or jump the shark) because we cannot live our lives expecting everything and everyone to live in suspended animation to give us a personal sense of continuity and comfort.  In a nutshell, the college me would have been too busy shouting 'sell out' for the 'grown-up' me to pick my battles.  How I learned to stop worrying and love the 'Mushroom.  Alas...

[tufsu1]

I've been to the Mellow in Athens (charicatures of famous UGA alums on the wall)....and I think it is very similar to many of the the restaurants in the chain....I tell people not to judge them solely based on the stores in Tinseltown or Fleming Island.

and, btw, the one in Gainesville closed a few years ago....but there is one now in Tally!

[mtraininjax]

Once the parking starts getting built to meet the new requirements RAP and the Council will likely rush to correct Mr. Love's error.

Jim Love is a good neighbor, literally, and a strong ally for growth in our area. He had to build a compromise between the owners of property around Kickbacks as well as MM. If you are under 100 seats, you don't have to pay for parking, but if you are above, you have to find a way to pay for 50% of the parking for your shop. Very simple, easy, and it helps place the burden of huge growth back onto the restaurant owner.

There was a great article in the Resident recently on what the Shoppes of Avondale started as, and what the purpose is with the diversity in the area. MM will happen, just as Kickbacks will happen, but other large seated restaurants may not, without finding a way to resolve parking.

I think Jim did a great job with this, and many people forget, he is located at King and College streets and is Steve Flores' neighbor, so he understands firsthand the parking issues.

[PeeJayEss]

Read and study more,Post less

Says the guy that just posted 5 gibberish posts in a row

[fieldafm]

All that aside, here are some more adpative reuses that would be similar to Mellow Avondale:

Anaheim, CA





KC, MO





Buffalo, NY











Winston Salem, NC

[fieldafm]

Ron Littlepage weighs in:

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400601/ron-littlepage/2012-07-11/call-would-help-parking-pensions#comment-form.

Seems if everyone would focus as much energy into discussing solutions instead of propaganda, the neighborhood can benefit.

[thelakelander]

Good editorial by Ron.

[fieldafm]

Perhaps I am naive, but I don't understand why these opposition groups and a neighborhood group like RAP won't meet with the developer? 

Seems to me that you get better outcomes when you work together?

The whole thing is very strange.  This isn't a round peg being fit into a square hole... you have a reuse that will be contextually sensitive to it's surroundings, a developer that has gone so far as to print his personal cell phone number in the Resident for anyone that has any questions (that's unheard of) and job creation in a stagnant economy. 

In regards to parking, there are alternatives... a legal one would be to tear down both buildings and rebuild with zero spaces (bad), another legal one would be to use the existing area near the old gas pumps as a huge stacked parking facility (bad), let the buidings sit and rot in (at least the case of the service station) their already blighted conditions (bad), introduce the concept of a density bonus for public squares and actual bike storage facilities (depending on how this is structured could be good or bad, however MANY other cities fund great community-driven projects through density bonuses) or better manage parking demand/supply (good).

I still haven't heard a convincing argument that leads me to believe the current course of action is a productive one in the present context.

[thelakelander]

I just spent a few days in Chicago's Lakeview last week.  That's a neighborhood that actually could say it has parking issues.  However, they've overcome them with a variety of solutions including a true network of bicycle facilities, four way stop signs on streets instead of traffic signals, mass transit, pedestrian amenities (ADA accessible sidewalks, allowing street trees to mature, pedestrian wayfinding signage, mixed-use zoning, etc.).  While they do have residential permit parking only on side streets, anyone is allowed to park on them between 6am-6pm. Several residential streets are only one way, which provides double the amount of on-street parking as well.  Maybe, I'm a little more urban minded than the average Jaxson when it comes to our core but this is the type of environment I've always envisioned for our older neighborhoods.  Here are a few pictures.