On Tuesday, the Planning Board began its review of the plan being proposed for 735 Columbia Street: the adaptive reuse of the site as the new location of Lil' Deb's Oasis.
It will be remembered that in 2020 the Planning Board approved a plan to reuse the building as a microbrewery and bar to be called Columbia Filling Station. On the approval of that project, there was one dissenting vote. The plan involved parking in front of the building, which Planning Board member Larry Bowne declared was "suburban" and argued it would be more appropriate if the space were used for outdoor seating. For this reason, Bowne voted against granting site plan approval.
It's not clear if and where parking is planned in the new proposal, but there was mention of outdoor seating in front of the building.
The brewery project was not pursued. It was abandoned because of the extensive remediation that would be required. That project is now underway on upper Union Street. On Tuesday, the applicant reported that an environmental review of the property was done at the time of closing, and "the verdict was there was no contamination."
The plan now being proposed involves some new construction on the site, shown in dark gray in the drawing below.
The front building would be used as the restaurant, which it is anticipated would seat 49. The existing building at the back would be used for event space with outdoor seating. It is anticipated this space would accommodate 150.
Craig Haigh pointed out that the building is in a locally designated historic district and hence the project is subject to review by the Historic Preservation Commission. Carla Perez-Gallardo, owner of Lil' Deb's Oasis, asked, "Does that include paint color?" She intimated that they might be interested in applying the colors used on the current building to the new location.
The review of this project by the Planning Board and then by the Historic Preservation Commission will continue.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CAROLE OSTERINK
Wait, what? The brewery project, highly funded and thoroughly organized, pulled out of TJ's location due to the high cost of remediation due to the contamination inherent in a plot used for decades for auto maintenance. Yet somehow, 3 years (?) later, the contamination has disappeared? Who's their engineer? The Galvan Organization for Environmental Chicanery?
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteSomehow, once again, L'il Debs is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. Not long ago they asked and received $30,000 from the Tourism Board? Where did that money go? Sorry, but I don't trust Carla or anything she says because it always seems like some sort of scheme for her to make free money claiming she is "not for profit". I agree with JF: there has to be some sort of remediation of the site and wonder how L'il Debs will claim that, because it is an historic site, state funds should be available for her to clean it up at someone else's expense so that she can then expand her business, now to include an event space. Sorry. Not buying it.
ReplyDeleteIt was $15,000 from the Tourism Board: https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2020/07/whats-being-considered-tonight.html
DeleteContamination does not disappear by itself. Are they going to force Hudson to give them more money for the clean up?
ReplyDeleteIf the remdiation was a big enough hassle that the brewery thought it was easier to rebuild an entire warehouse, plank by plank, on Union St., I'd be cautious. I like Lil' Deb's. I hope they've done the due diligence. Maybe reach out to the brewery folks and find out what scared them away. Also, if anything was discovered in testing, I'd think that the seller would need to disclose.
ReplyDeleteEvery owner in the chain of title is on the hook, jointly and severally, for the cost of clean up. If Lil Debs is just renting, I’d suspect that the environmental issue wasn’t on their radar. But it clearly should be now.
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