The controversial rezoning application of 814 Hinton Ave. in Belmont was approved by City Council on July 6 by with a 3-2 vote. Andrew Ewell and Hannah Pittard, who currently live at that address, applied to have their property rezoned from residential to commercial, with the hope of opening a Creole style restaurant they will call Southern Crescent.
“It’s been a long road,” writes Ewell in an e-mail. “We are thrilled to finally get to work on the restaurant and start focusing on the daily work of opening our business.”
|
Andrew Ewell and Hannah Pittard sit on their front porch at 814 Hinton Ave. in Belmont. On July 6, City Council approved their proposal to change the property zoning from residential to commercial. Their restaurant, Southern Crescent, is slated to open in the fall. |
The restaurant is intended to be a small, upscale, family-owned business serving soft shell crabs, gumbos and crawfish. To the application, the couple added proffers to which they are legally bound: An S-3 buffer, which is a wall of vegetation to separate the house from the neighbors, and a clause that prohibits amplified music.
The application failed to gather support from Councilor Satyendra Huja and Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro. At the meeting, Huja said the rezoning proposal was not consistent with the Neighborhood Comprehensive Plan. Taliaferro, who initially supported the application, said that because the neighborhood is “already under a lot of stress,” approving this rezoning might not be in its best interest.
From the beginning, the application was met with vocal opposition from neighbors and Belmont residents. Concerns ranged from noise, traffic, parking and late-night carousing.
“It was tough,” says Ewell. “But I think our project served to spark a much-needed conversation and to galvanize some of the neighborhood’s important issues.”
Councilor David Brown said that the issues that have come to light through the application are separate from the bigger concerns of the neighborhood. “These issues will be there whether this property is changed or not,” he said.
In trying to address this problem, in a previous City Council meeting, Mayor Dave Norris said that his support for the application was contingent upon the city engaging the residents in discussions to find solution for the issues at stake. Brian Haluska, city neighborhood planner, informed Council that a preliminary discussion was held with Jesse Fiske, president of the Belmont-Carlton Neighborhood Association, “about opening lines of communication with the Belmont neighborhood,” he said in an interview. The plan is to have a city-facilitated meeting where “we bring up all the issues that are out there, and once we kind of identify them, then I think we can start looking at it from that perspective,” says Haluska.
Tomas Rahal, co-owner and head chef of Mas Tapas in Belmont, has opposed the addition of one more restaurant to the commercial strip on Hinton Avenue since the beginning.
Rahal asked Council to “roll up its sleeves and develop policies that will seek to promote residential historic preservation policies,” that would benefit the family-oriented neighborhood. He recommended the city begin monitoring noise complaints, traffic flow and parking “before they erode social fabric of residential neighborhoods.”
Although Ewell doesn’t think parking is a problem in Belmont, he says noise is a legitimate concern. “I think adding a buffer to our property will help isolate the noise to the commercial corridor,” he says. “Beyond that, I think noise is an issue that needs to see some compromise on both sides. Again, it’s a condition of city living, but that doesn’t mean a middle ground can’t be reached.”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
