A recent Planning Commission debate over a bank (docket item 9) typified the governing body’s fascinating tug-of-war between high-minded rhetoric vs the nuts and bolts of bureaucracy.
The Planning Commission said arguments around whether or not Old Town has too many banks distracted from the real question of whether King Street’s retail space is better served by having a weird seven foot gap in the front of the building where the bank wasn’t allowed by-right.
Earlier this year, TD Bank filed to move from its current location in Old Town to 515 King Street in the same building as Tatte Bakery and Cafe. While the bank can move in as a by-right use for the space, the company had to file a special use permit because the 37 foot street frontage exceeds the 30 foot by-right usage — meaning the bank had to seek administrative approval rather than moving in without any City input.
But while banks are a by-right use for the building, the staff report took the unusual step of recommending denial of the application because it doesn’t activate the street frontage or meet the goals of the city’s King Street retail Strategy Plan.
The staff report noted that, within a one block radius of the space, there are three other banks.
“The addition of another inactive use – a bank – with excessive frontage would negatively impact area vitality and an interactive pedestrian experience,” the report said. “The proposed use incorporating an expansive frontage would contribute to an experiential and visual interruption of a positive pedestrian experience along King Street.”
There were only two speakers at the hearing, and the one that wasn’t the lawyer for the applicant expressed the same misgivings about a new bank on King Street that the staff report did.
“I frequently am riding around with friends and we say ‘oh my gosh, another bank. Another bank. Who needs a bank in this day and age in a retail storefront location?'” said Jeremy Fretts. “So I’m here to oppose another bank in our downtown core.”
But Mark Viani, the attorney for the applicant, said the question isn’t about whether or not the bank should move into the space. Viani said the bank will be moving in regardless, the only question is whether the bank gets to use the extra seven feet of frontage along King Street.
Viani said if TD Bank isn’t granted the permit, they’ll move into the rest of the space by right and set up a demising wall along the seven feet it can’t use, with that space left empty except for an advertisement for the building.
This argument held water for most of the Planning Commission. Commissioner David Brown noted “there isn’t really a whole lot of difference between yes and no in this case.”
Commissioner Mindy Lyles said the space has been vacant for two years and a dead space is worse than one occupied by a bank. Planning Commission Chair Nathan Macek went a step further and pushed back against the characterization of banks along King Street as a detriment. Macek said Tatte Bakery and Cafe in the same building already activates this block of King Street.
“I think bank uses are part of a healthy business district,” Macek said. “So saying all banks should be on second floors and we should banish them from the street… there’s more to a downtown area than boutiques and restaurants; there’s banks and government offices. We’re in one of the biggest ‘dead blocks’ on the street [City Hall] with one door facing King Street so we’re the pot calling the kettle black.”
Even so, Planning Commissioner Melissa McMahon said the Commission should use its limited power in this scenario to push back against bank creep onto King Street. One of the proposed conditions would require the bank to provide a rotating art display in front of the ATM room that would be illuminated until 11 p.m. daily to enhance visual interest and enrich the pedestrian experience, but McMahon said that’s barely better than the space being left empty:
I do not think this use warrants an exception to give them more use of the frontage. They don’t contribute to street vitality at all… with infrequent customer interaction and hidden as far from the front of the building as it can be. It creates the opposite of a vital streetfront… [We] can’t do anything about the fact that it’s a by right use and I can’t stop it from occupying the remaining 30 feet and creating an annoying square in the corner, but I don’t think a piece of static art in the corner is all that much better.
McMahon said the City should separately reconsider by-right uses with this level of frequency.
The Planning Commission recommended approval 5-2. The permit will head to the City Council for review on Saturday, Dec. 14.
Photo via Google Maps
