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Show planners give Oak Saloon the go ahead in 3-2 vote 1 W by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer i The Park City Planning Commission Commis-sion last week approved a bar application for Main Street by a 3-2 vote. The proposed bar at 419 Main, to be Icalled the Oak Saloon, was opposed by Allen Frandsen, a nearby resident, who cited several problems with bars and said they would be aggravated by the small size; of the building. Proponents, meanwhile, argued the jMain Street commercial district was designed expressly for such uses as bars. Tne vote at the May 29 meeting resulted in a tie at first, with Planning Commissioners Steve Dec-kerf Dec-kerf and Paul Bickmore in support, and Ruth Gezelius and Ray Robinson ! against. (Commissioner Ron Whaley abstained. ) Chairman Brad Olch cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the bar. In a report dated May 22, the city's planning staff recommended approval, on condition there be no live music. Allen Frandsen said use of the bar would spill over into the nearby area. He noted his primary legal residence is immediately next door, at 421 Main. The building is 12 feet, six inches wide with nine feet of usable space, so the lack of space will lead to drinking on the street, he said. "They're not going to sit cooped up in a nine-foot building in the summer when they can go outside." He also wondered what areas customers will use for urinating. Frandsen said he currently has noise problems from the Alamo bar nearby, and alter weekends there is trash left around bars such as the Alamo and Mileti's. The town should not create more problems for the local police with another bar, he argued. He said he comes to his residence for privacy. "I don't come up to Park City to call the police." But Steve Dering, co-owner of the 419 building, responded, "I'm mystified when someone wants to be alone and they live in the commercial district." Steven Fisher, the applicant for the saloon, said he is spending $40,000 to gut the building and renovate it to provide 1,450 square feet of space. The bar will also have two public restrooms. Bickmore said police could solve"1 80 percent of the problems raised by Frandsen. In addition, he said bars aren't as rowdy as opponents suggested. "I enjoy public bars and I don't recall ever going out and peeing on the sidewalk," he said. Bickmore said people who live in the commercial area must accept the consequences. "I lived in San Francisco under a bus stop and I didn't ask them to discontinue the buses." Jan Wilking. the other owner of the 419 Building, said Main Street is historically an area for bars. "I remember when there were sue or eight bars in the immediate area." Both Dering and Wilking said Main Street has a pressing need to offer more night life. Dering said, "I think the Park Hotel is less concerned with noise on Main Street than no bodies on Main Street." But Frandsen said he was on Main before the bars. He also cast doubt on the historic credentials of the 419 building. The building was not a bar, he said, but was used as a storage area for the Oak Saloon. (The Oak was located on what is now a vacant lot to the south.) "It's been . unpainted for 20 years. That's not historic," he said. Commissioner Gezelius said the .town forgets the extensive residential residen-tial uses on Main Street. Several commercial buildings that are commercial on the first floor are residential higher up. It's doubtful bars can insulate against the noise they create, she said. For example, noise leaks out of the Cowboy Bar when the employees , open the windows to relieve heat in the bar, Gezelius noted. But proponents again said that Main is a commercial area. Dering said, "If there's any place that is appropriate (for a bar), it's Main Street." Fisher said he hopes to open the bar by mid-July, or certainly by Art Festival weekend in early August. |
