Deadline Looms for Promenade Task Force

By Oliver Lukacs

March 9 -- Warned by frustrated City officials of an impending deadline, the Promenade Uses Taskforce last week began hammering out some long-awaited recommendations -- from streamlining the permit process to removing caps on restaurants and alcohol outlets -- in order to balance uses on the popular commercial strip.

While the taskforce -- charged last April with finding ways to stem the exodus of eateries from the Promenade due to high rents -- reviewed some preliminary recommendations to the City Council at its meeting last Monday, it again postponed any decision until the next, and potentially last, meeting later this month. City officials were disappointed with the delay.

"I am hearing the same thing I heard the last meeting," said City Council member Pam O'Connor, who is on the taskforce. "If we keep rehashing things, we'll be here forever. Let's get something on paper."

Assured by taskforce chair and City Councilman Michael Feinstein that the group would make its recommendations at a scheduled five-hour meeting on March 20, O'Connor countered with a caveat.

"If we make another meeting I don't want it to be Groundhog Day," referring to a movie where Bill Murray was trapped endlessly repeating the same day, evoking some laughter from the dozen member audience.

City Planning Director Susan Frick said formulating the recommendations was supposed to be a six-month process, and with the April deadline just weeks away it was time to get cracking.

"The taskforce needs to roll up their sleeves and meet the time frame" set by the City Council, said Frick. "If the taskforce cannot narrow down some options and recommendations the staff will have to" do it themselves.

But some task force members cautioned against rushing to a decision.

"To rush to the alter and marry into any one idea is not a good thing to do," said Bill Tucker, a taskforce member who sits on the Bayside District board. He suggested extending the deadline to ensure the taskforce "is doing a quality job."

Jay P. Johnson, a taskforce member and planning commissioner, agreed. "I am not in favor of making a blanket decision on any one thing."

"It's time to focus on what the real task is," which is saving the Promenade, said Councilman Herb Katz, who is also a taskforce member. The Promenade, he said, is in a "very precarious position" with a "really dicey economy."

But, Katz added, "we'll finish when the job is done. If it takes a little longer than so be it."

While coming to no decision, the taskforce revisited some potential recommendations, including regulating uses and developing marketing strategies.

"I don't think we should dictate what kind of store we should have" said Katz, "whether it's a GAP or a mom and pop, but we should dictate the feeling of the place." This Katz said, could be achieved by regulating "frontage."

However, Katz added, "I don't think we need to regulate so much that we choke ourselves to death."

O'Connor said the focus on the types of business, local independent or regional chain stores, should be geared to the community's needs. "The best places in the world attract their own community first, and if it is attractive and it works others will want to come."

Echoing one of the key recommendations made by the New York-based "place-making" consulting firm Project for Public Spaces -- hired by the City for $54,000 -- taskforce member and property owner Merlyn Ruddle suggested creating more outdoor dinning. Outdoor dining, she said, adds to the "café atmosphere" that people "universally" attribute to a successful commercial destination.

To that end most of the taskforce supported a proposed recommendation that would streamline the permitting process for creating outdoor dining by eliminating Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board oversight, and placing approval authority into administrative hands.

Removing the existing cap on the number of restaurants on the Promenade -- which is one recommendation being contemplated -- sparked concerns that the plan could backfire by causing eateries to flood the strip.

Johnson worried that lifting the cap would lead to restaurants "cannibalizing" each other by tipping the balance of supply and demand.

"The key here is not cannibalizing what we have," said Johnson. "You're cutting the pie too many ways," he said pointing out that restaurants will starve each other out if there aren't enough customers to go around.

The restaurant cap for the Promenade is 52, with only 31 currently in operation, while the cap for the entire Downtown district is 76, with 59 restaurants operating.

Katz agreed that the caps should stay. "We're not seeing any problem with it. If it ain't broke why fix it."

West Hooker, a task force member who owns Locanda del Lago Restaurant on the Promenade, agreed. "I am not sure you want to remove that cap," he said, referring to the cap on the district.

Because the parcel prices on the Promenade have soared, Hooker said, restaurants are moving to the surrounding streets where they can afford rent, and are consequently "biting into the big pie too. That's just the reality."

Another controversial suggestion calls for removing existing caps on the number of alcohol serving businesses, especially restaurants, to boost the shopping strip's vitality. Currently the district cap is 50, with 36 now in operation, and 31 for the Promenade, where 18 currently serve alcohol.

Johnson opposed the idea, citing his "concern for public safety." He said the more places people could get drunk, the higher the number of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) violations there will be.

Citing his past experience in a two-bar town, Feinstein disagreed "I don't think people will get any drunker if we remove the cap."

Another recommendations being considered as a "disincentive" for retail is to provide a 50 percent density bonus for new development that includes deed-restricted restaurant space.

While Tucker called it "a gem of an idea," Katz predicted it would result in a lot of "shenanigans."

"There's a lot of holes in it," said Katz. "Staff needs to look at it again."

In a memo to the taskforce, Councilman Ken Genser said he was "baffled and concerned" why "limiting the percentage of the street frontage occupied by retail uses" has not been considered when it is likely "the most effective" way to obtain the right mix.

Genser noted that it is "hardly a radical idea," considering that the City has already "enacted a limit on the number of restaurants per block."

Janet Morris, a community member who said her family owns property on the Promenade, was concerned that the proposed regulations could lead to unfavorable treatment for retailers.

Morris said that the regulations on retail aim "to shoot the goose the laid the golden egg," and urged the City to "let the market forces be what they are" and not "over-regulate the Promenade."