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05/23/2017 12:00 AMEssex citizens packed every corner of the Essex Town Hall Auditorium on May 15 for the Planning & Zoning Commission meeting at which Essex Boat Works, LLC, and Carlson Landing, LLC, presented finalized plans for a new restaurant.
Essex Boat Works is seeking a special exception to construct a new building for a marina and a restaurant as an accessory use at a marina. Present at the meeting were both citizens there to voice support for the new restaurant, and those there to second concerns raised by the Connecticut River Museum (CRM), which owns the adjacent properties.
CRM representatives stated multiple times over the course of the meeting that they were not opposed to the building of the restaurant in and of itself, but they did have a list of resolvable concerns regarding how the new business could potentially affect their business negatively, as well as what would happen in the future if the plan stayed as is and one of the properties was sold without the other in the future.
Essex Boat Works proposes building a two-story structure that would include a small restaurant and some office spaces at the lot adjacent to its 9 Ferry street location. The restaurant would have 59 seats, and operate year-round from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., with two meal servings a day—lunch and dinner, and occasionally, brunch—served by seven employees. There would also be 11 slips and 12 moorings for visitors traveling by water.
According to the proposal, the 63 available parking spots across the two properties—the Main Street lot and the 9 Ferry Street location—would not include any boat storage. There would be access from both Ferry Street and Main Street. The Main Street access is via a driveway that would bifurcate the Connecticut River Museum campus.
At this time, stairs donated by the Rotary Club of Essex to connect the two Connecticut River Museum properties are due to be removed; counsel for Essex Boat Works, LLC, and Carlson Landing, LLC, noted that the stairs were allowed by a previous owner through a license and not an easement, and therefore can be removed at will.
Audience questions for the applicant included inquiries about how many employees there would be and how that would affect parking, whether there would be a sidewalk in the gravel driveway, whether the site’s silver maple trees would be removed, and whether a traffic study used was based on a specific time frame and if it could be viewed by the public.
More than 20 people spoke in favor of the project, largely citing the need for new economic development in the town. Several who spoke in favor also mentioned that they also would like to see certain points raised by the Connecticut River Museum addressed, but also hoped that an open dialogue could be established by the two parties.
CRM Director Chris Dobbs said the board of the museum was not opposed to the restaurant, but that it did have thoughts and concerns that it would like to express. Dobbs expressed disappointment regarding the destruction of the stairs that link the two museum properties, but also acknowledged the owner’s right to do so. The list of other concerns included what the museum identified as “apparent zoning and health code violations; potential physical and economic impact on the museum, our neighborhood, and the Connecticut River; and the eradication of historic features, views, and archaeological evidence.”
Concerns about the scale of the building plans, the septic system, and stormwater infiltration galleries were then addressed by engineer Joe Wren, hired by CRM to evaluate the proposed plans.
All information presented at the meeting is available to the public through the Land Use Office. Decision on this matter was postponed until the next Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, scheduled for Monday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at Essex Town Hall.