And with that, we'll start with zoning docket eighty-eight twenty-four.

Oh should the assistant?

Oh something's working.

There we go.

Okay, all right.

Um zoning docket eighty-eight twenty-four is an application made by council motion affecting Blue Oak restaurant on Carrollton Avenue and Domain Street.

Over the years and certainly since COVID, it has gradually expanded in area.

There's been some back of house structures added in the rear portion of the site.

There's been outdoor seating area added along the front of the site.

And so the gradual expansion has necessitated the conditional use approval.

The council uh requested the applicant withdraw and essentially voluntarily start implementing some of the provisos that had been contemplated at council level, um, and in so many words to basically show a good track record and kind of develop um perhaps some you know some goodwill among the neighbors.

Um and so you know, that happened for several months.

There were uh meetings between the the council and the applicant and neighbors during that time, and the council has reinitiated the application by motion.

Uh and so it is back before US and new application.

The the staff's position is that given the intent of the district and the size of the site in general, a restaurant of this site can be appropriate.

Um there are some technical zoning things that have to be worked out, um, especially in regard to parking.

Uh the reduction of on-site parking and its replacement with some outdoor area uh has the effect of increasing the parking requirement such that the restaurant would need a waiver.

The staff finds that the criteria for approving a waiver are not met.

And so one of the provisos that is attached to the staff's approval recommendation is that some more on-site parking be restored.

And so given that, and and with the condition that the parking be uh replaced on site, the staff is recommending approval with four provisos.

Thank you.

Laura Barth, and Ronald Evans.

You're all here.

So we just brought his whole staff to wave time.

10 minutes.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Zach.

Good afternoon, Commission Zach Smith, 1000 South Norman Sea Francis.

Uh it's a pleasure to see you guys again.

Uh, for I I know this the staff just gave a kind of refresher there, and a lot's gone on since the last time we saw you guys.

We saw you guys last on December 12th of 2023.

Um the last time we were here, there was also a recommendation of approval from the staff.

So there's a couple things that have been consistent.

There's also a couple things that have been consistently proven over that time.

As the staff just mentioned, you know, this was a request essentially to to kind of withdraw this.

Uh, and there's there's a letter probably in the file from from Jojo Russo in his office about look, we want to see this get withdrawn.

We want to see you guys help prove this, because at the time a year ago, there were some doubts as to whether or not the management team of Blue Oak was serious about some of these things.

Some of these things that of course many of you know are not the responsibility of an individual restaurant, uh, but in some cases they just happen to become the responsibility, especially when you are um the the most uh successful part of a neighborhood or a corner in some respects.

So we are here to kind of talk about that.

We're here to talk about what we've done, we're here to talk about what this proposal looks like, and essentially kind of set the table for what we hope is today in approval of this this body.

Uh the only thing in question, just putting it kind of straight out on there, is the parking, and I'll get to that.

Because we think that there is a very, you know, when we talk about seven, we talk about none, we talk about this, that, and the other.

There are things to create parking that we have determined that I will say there are some neighbors that when they realize this in some meetings back when we were having the freezes last year.

This is how long we've been going back and forth and having very good faith conversations with neighbors.

And at that point, I want to say also we've had some really amazing conversations with neighbors uh to the point of several in-person, several at our office we've hosted.

We've obviously had our original MPP in May of 23.

That was early May, I think right after Jazz Fest.

And then we've had uh the a series of Zoom conversations that were facilitated by Joe's office, and um and continuing follow-up.

And so we're here to essentially, you know, I know it's not always good to poll the group, but uh, you know, I know that you guys live in the city, you work in the city, you roam the city.

If you've driven by Blue Oak in the last day, the last week, the last month, how the last year, what we're asking for is to keep it exactly as you've seen it for the last year.

Okay.

We're not this this approval is not some new expansion.

It is not anything other than maintaining what is there.

If you again, if you drove by it, if you if you drive by it on the way home today, no matter how this meeting goes, and you see what's there, and say, oh, this is to essentially keep there.

Uh what had happened, well, you know, one of the things is that um there were some COVID tents that were there, those things are gone.

Uh one of the things we're gonna get to about in the parking a little bit later, is about how um some of the area, how the city is classifying some area that has no seating, has no use, does not serve customers, does not serve diners, and is basically some additional square footage that has been tacked up against us to add for even additional parking.

Um you've heard from lots of folks in the last meeting.

Um, I think it's a pretty safe thing to say.

I think there are some some absolute folks that have had issues with this establishment that wish it was the old Fellinis, that wish it was something just quieter.

They remember the quote unquote good old days when you know it was a sleepy little restaurant, and that's the way it was.