Board Of Zoning Appeals Approve Variance Request From Small Restaurant Owner Allowing Him To Not Have To Provide 5 Off-Street Parking Spots

The Board of Zoning Appeals met 12/16/2024. One of the variance requests they took up was a request for a commercial property on Pacific Street.

The new tenant, Patrick, plans to open a 15-per-capacity restaurant in the space. Although the property is zoned commercial, it does not have a parking lot or space to construct a parking lot. The Zoning Code requires restaurants provide 1 off-street parking space per 3 persons allowed under the maximum capacity. This would require the restaurant to have 5 parking spaces, which it is physically unable to provide. As a result, Patrick applied for a variance, noting in his application “the building is functionally useless as a commercial space despite being built as one” if the variance is not granted.

The board ended up voting unanimously to approve the variance request.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

The application was fairly straight-forward. The lot is currently zoned commercial although it does not have any off-street parking and although it is only 2,456 square feet in size which is 11,544 square feet smaller than the minimum size requirement set out in the city’s Zoning Ordinance. The parcel is a legally non-conforming lot of record.

Patrick did not own the building but was renting it from someone who had recently purchased it. He was not renting the entire building but only renting a small studio space that faces Pacific Street. There were a couple apartments on the second floor and a commercial space that faces Morrison which had most recently been used as a salon, and his business did not have any association with those.

He planned to open a small bar/restaurant that would have a 15-person limit, with the expectation being that there would be 2 staff members and up to 13 restaurant-goers at any given time. They would not be installing a hood, so all of the food would be cold. He described it as a “raw bar” which would serve things like oysters, crudo, and carpaccio along with cocktails and wine. He envisioned it as being a place where you could either eat a meal or just start there for appetizers before going to another restaurant downtown afterwords. “[T] he idea is we have it be small and cute.” They planned to be open 3 or 4 days a week in the evenings.

The board spent around 12 minutes reviewing the application and asking questions of the applicant before voting unanimously to approve the variance request.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1249005&GUID=53C6CDC2-7506-48F5-9290-1E6C58A13900