The shop at 709 and 711 Pendleton Street has been a commercial space since WWII, but neighbors argued the removal of a proffer requiring its use as an office puts their neighborhood at risk.
Parker-Gray residents spoke at a Planning Commission meeting yesterday (Tuesday) sharing fears that a new coffee shop development would damage their residential neighborhood, but Commissioners fired back that those concerns just reflect the reality of living in a city.
The 709 and 711 Pendleton Street property sits in the heart of the Parker-Gray neighborhood, a historically residential area squeezed between the increasingly developed Braddock and Old Town North neighborhoods.
The property is currently a one-story building constructed in 1941, when much of the neighborhood was built, and a staff report said it’s had a “somewhat complicated zoning history.” From 1941 to the 1970s it operated as a local grocery store called Sunshine Market. The neighborhood was rezoned to residential and the property was considered a nonconforming use, but was granted special use permits throughout the 70s for commercial and office uses.
In 1979, the City Council approved a request to rezone the property from residential to commercial with a proffer that limited the use of the property to general and business offices.
There was a series of other zoning changes and amendment requests throughout the 90s, but the property owners said abrupt decline of the office market during the Covid pandemic suddenly made the proffer requiring office use a death sentence.
The proposal would remove the proffer requiring general and business office use and just make the property zoned “commercial low.”
The staff report recommended approval of the rezoning. According to the report:
Staff recommends approval of the applicant’s request to rezone the subject properties. The applicant’s proposal would be consistent with the master plan and compatible with surrounding uses. Given the constraints of the subject property, a limited number of additional uses would be permitted by-right which would further limit the potential for impacts to adjacent properties.
One of the property owners said the plan is to bring in a new coffee shop from the owners of Baku Delicious in Fairfax and that the shop would sell Eastern European pastries made in the Fairfax location.
But neighbors said at the hearing and in letters sent to the Planning Commission that the trash, parking and additional deliveries associated with a new cafe would adversely affect the quality of life in the neighborhood.
“The current proffer in effect for the property is there for a reason, as this is a residential area,” wrote Jordan Plieskatt. “From the vacant business fronts and available properties across town, there are plenty of other storefronts in commercial areas that would better suit a coffee shop.”
“There are many commercial vacancies elsewhere and no shortage of restaurants and coffee shops in old town — fully half a dozen or more within 5 blocks, in established commercial areas,” write Laurie Tasharski. “Changing the zoning of the neighborhood benefits only the landlord/developer. It harms our neighborhood and will result in more accidents, more rats, and more noise for already taxed neighbors.”
Other neighbors said their concerns are less about the coffee shop but about other commercial uses that might move in if the coffee shop were to close.
Planning Commissioners, on the other hand, said this proposal is in keeping with the character of the neighborhood and the current master plan for the neighborhood as a whole.
“Removing proffers on this property goes in the right direction for maximizing welfare and quality of life, in part because of economic circumstances,” said Commissioner Melissa McMahon. “We have units today at this site that potentially have no promise of ever having occupants because our office market is not strong. There’s not a lot of need for strictly office space, and the office space that does exist works best when mixed with other uses.”
Planning Commission Chair Nathan Macek said he was surprised to hear the property wasn’t already fully commercially zoned.
“This was a surprise to me that this was not a full fledged commercial property here,” Macek said. “It’s a commercial area. It’s a block from Washington Street. Yeah, there are residences on Columbus, but it’s a block from a commercial area. Given changes in the commercial marketplace… I think we really need to support this application this evening.”
While McMahon said she recognized concerns about parking, Macek said that’s just part of living in a city.
“That’s what comes with living in an urban area,” Macek said. “We share our parking on these streets. I don’t think a small coffee shop here will be the straw that breaks the camels back in regard to parking in this neighborhood.”
The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the rezoning, which will go to the City Council for review on Saturday, June 15.
Image via Google Maps
