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Peace in the middle of 17th Ave East: Volunteer Park Cafe, neighbors reach accord

After a year of disagreements and sometimes angry public dialogue in the CHS comments, Volunteer Park Cafe and the Volunteer Park Neighbors group, a set of residents who live near the cafe and who have said they would oppose its efforts to win a change of use application with the City of Seattle because they are unhappy with the growth of the restaurant, released a joint statement Wednesday night announcing progress toward an agreement between the two groups. The full statement is at the end of this post, below.


Summer 1961 at 17th/Galer where a grocery or cafe has operated for decades (Image: VPC Facebook)

In the announcement, the two sides said they hope to have details of an agreement to announce at Monday’s public meeting to discuss the cafe’s application for a formal change of use for the building at 17th Ave E and E Galer that the restaurant has called home since 2007.

Project:      3011437  

Address:     1501 17TH AVE E

Area:     Downtown/Central

Zone:     ARTERIAL WITHIN 100 FT., SINGLE FAMILY 5000

The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is currently reviewing the application described below and will hold a public meeting to gather comments on the project.

Project Description:  Land Use Application to allow the change of use from general retail sales and service to restaurant (Volunteer Park Cafe).

The project requires the following approvals:

    *  Administrative Conditional Use to change from one non-conforming use to another.

INFORMATION AVAILABLE

A copy of the plans and other application materials are available at the DPD Public Resource Center, 700 5th Avenue, Suite 2000 (206) 684-8467. The Public Resource Center is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.

PUBLIC MEETING

A public meeting to review this application will be held on April 25, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. in the:

Stevens Elementary School Cafeteria

1242 18th Avenue East

Written and/or oral comments may be submitted at the meeting.

This facility is accessible. Print and communication access available on request. Please contact the Public Resource Center (206) 684-8467 as soon as possible to request accommodation for a disability.

Last June, CHS was first to report the disharmony over the VPC as a neighbor had tipped the City’s Department of Planning and Development that the restaurant was operating illegally in a building zoned only to be a grocery — not a bustling neighborhood restaurant.

“I think a neighborhood cafe is an asset to the community. But the issue is the growth that they have had. The expansion they have had is out of scale with what the neighborhood can support,” neighbor Paul Jones told CHS last summer.

The neighbor group launched a Web site (http://vpneighbors.wordpress.com/), lawyered up and made their case despite a groundswell of public support for the cafe.

VPC owners Heather Earnhardt and Ericka Burke, meanwhile, got to work facing the DPD application process to secure permission from the department for a change of use for the 17th and Galer location to allow the restaurant to continue operating in the neighborhood. Burke chalked up the zoning problems with VPC to lack of experience with operating a restaurant in a residential area. “”This is the third business that I’ve owned,” she told CHS. “The landlords have been more strategic in the other situations. In that case, I never had to worry about things like zoning. If i open another restaurant, the first thing I’m going to do, of course is look at the zoning!”

Cliff Meyer, representative for the neighbors group, like Jones, has said the situation is not about forcing VPC out but putting limits on its growth. “We know the public comments,” Meyer told us last year. “A lot of folks that don’t live near the cafe and they like it and they’re saying that. We agree that it is a great community asset. Without knowing there will be limits, we can’t support it.”

Below is the statement sent to us by both sides in the matter. We have not yet spoken with DPD about how the potential agreement will impact their decision process around the change of use application — but given some of the past drama in the situation, we’d be surprised if the city department is not extremely relieved it won’t have to pick a side in the dispute.

VPC-VPN joint-statement:

April 20, 2011

Volunteer Park Cafe and Volunteer Park Neighbors are pleased to tell our fellow neighbors in recent days we’ve had productive talks. Both sides are working towards an agreement that would allow VPN to support VPC’s restaurant permit application, while also protecting the character of our neighborhood now, and in the future.

We hope to be able to announce an agreement, or substantial progress on one, at the Public Meeting the Department of Planning and Development is hosting on the restaurant permit application.  This meeting will be at 6PM, on April 25, at the Stevens Elementary School cafeteria.

At this time we cannot provide any further details or answer questions regarding our joint efforts, in order to better assure their success.

Volunteer Park Cafe & Volunteer Park Neighbors

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15 Comments
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CapHillMax
12 years ago

Working together on this is the best way to resolve the dispute: each side gives a little bit.

subway lung
subway lung
12 years ago

Great headline… and good to hear, too.

love to eat
love to eat
12 years ago

Yay for VP Cafe!
Boo for neighbors who don’t appreciate a wonderful cafe they can walk to, just because it’s a little busy!

Hurray for progress and resolution on this.

poseur
12 years ago

VP Cafe: GOOD! Stupid NIMBY neighbors: BAD!

Yaaay, life is so unbelievably simple, isn’t it?

Phil Mocek
12 years ago

CapHillMax: Not to say this is specifically what happened in this case, but that’s not such a great way to solve a dispute over whether one side was justified in encroaching on the other.

If we’re neighbors and I move the fence between us 20′ toward your house, then we get into a nasty dispute over the move, would it be best to ask each side to give a little bit? Maybe after some of the neighbors who enjoy hanging out in my newly-enlarged yard raise a stink about your defensiveness, and the whole thing gets a lot of press. You’re so mean! My yard is a neighborhood treasure. But let’s each give a little bit and settle this. We’ll work together. Let’s say I agree that I won’t keep the whole 20′ I took, and you agree that you won’t insist on taking all of it back, so the fence ends up 10′ closer to your house than it began.

That’s a great move for the aggressor.

sammy
sammy
12 years ago

——————————————————————
Burke chalked up the zoning problems with VPC to lack of experience with operating a restaurant in a residential area. “”This is the third business that I’ve owned,” she told CHS. “The landlords have been more strategic in the other situations. In that case, I never had to worry about things like zoning. If i open another restaurant, the first thing I’m going to do, of course is look at the zoning!”
——————————————————————

Ignorance of the law excuses no one.

pragmatic
pragmatic
12 years ago

I’m loving that sign in the window: “SHASTA in throw-away cans”

A Neigbor
A Neigbor
12 years ago

To see how the blatant disregard for rules and regulations are going to be handled by the various departments that will now need to be addressed. I see a very expensive contractor bill on the horizon.

This is NOT an existing legal restaurant, so it will need to be brought up to code if the city allows the use. ADA improvements must be made, per KC regulations a restaurant of this size requires 2 bathrooms (both ADA compliant), a hood system will need to be installed, fire barriers installed, grease trap, etc. etc. etc.

Now that the bright lights of the government are shining on the VPC, there’s no going back. They would have been much smarter to work with the neighbors from the get go, once the city is involved there are no bending the rules.

At least they will be doing their part in helping the local builders, 100K+ easily, heck, the hood is going to be 25k alone…

March
March
12 years ago

This headline demonstrates the disrespect with which this blog has treated our neighborhood. The previous article was titled “As 17th and Galer Turns.’ For those of us who live in this neighborhood, none of this is a joke.

Many of us supported the cafe, and have been been caught out in doing so. We had every reason to believe their claims to legality. Firstly, who in their right minds opens a business without understanding their zoning? More importantly, we read article after article in this blog promoting the cafe’s perspective, apparently without fact-checking. I am hard pressed to recall a single article where VPC was seriously called to task for anything from their claims to operating legally to their clear pattern of missing deadline after deadline in the land-use change process.

I am not a journalist, but it doesn’t take a great deal of depth to see that the longer the cafe delays the final decision, the longer they are allowed to operate as is, at our neighborhood’s expense. I would greatly enjoy reading an article exploring these ideas. Justin?

The neighbors’ blog does a far better job of putting forth researched and documented facts. Initially, the tone was offensive. Not only has that changed, but I recognize that my primary objection was to what they were saying. I thought the patio a great idea. They were saying: VPC is illegal and expanding illegally. We accept the restaurant. We do not accept the proposed patio (which is now a real patio, illegally.) Theirs is an entirely respectable position, which I now support.

VP Neighbors’ blog offers links to city and state documents which back up their claims. None of this “We have lots of support.” They analyze the situation. They are remarkably neutral, given the effect on their lives. I would have appreciated if CHS had shown this same adherence to journalistic standards.

I will post the link here, as a way of apology; http://vpneighbors.wordpress.com/

I will also attend the meeting on April 25th, to show my support in the correct column.

March
March
12 years ago

The original comment is precisely the attitude which will turn what could be a productive public meeting into a farce passing for entertainment.

“Love to eat”: there exist reams of information about the facts of VPC’s transgression.. That at this point, all you can find to bolster VPC is “Yay for VP Cafe!” demonstrates the indefensibility of the cafe and those who insist on unilaterally supporting them.

VP Neighbors express a more reasoned opinion. On their blog, they write – and I agree – that it is possible to support the cafe and still ask the owners to be accountable for their impacts. Does anyone not agree?

subway lung
subway lung
12 years ago

Ok, yeah, sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed at the jocular headline which provided a light-hearted summarization of the latest developments in the vpc saga while cheekily putting it all in perspective.

Bruce
Bruce
12 years ago

“This headline demonstrates the disrespect with which this blog has treated our neighborhood. “

Have you read anything else on this blog or jseattle’s twitter feed? This blog is routinely disrespectful to vast swaths of the population (including me at times) and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

82ndParatrooper
82ndParatrooper
12 years ago

While I appreciate that you have had a rough time (I’m assuming due to parking) and you are irritated because the city and the restaurant haven’t unequivocally given into your desires, I think you all sound very very square.

I’ve seen the houses and neighborhoods surrounding Volunteer Park. Your park is beautiful. So are your houses. Sure wish my park (Judkins Park) was so beautiful and had such a perfect atmosphere. Unfortunately, instead of bustling restaurants, my neighborhood is annoyed by Parnell’s Mini-Mart which has had a parking lot full of prostitutes and crack dealers for the past 30yrs. Did you know that Judkin’s park has it’s own gangs? They like to break into houses and steal cars and occasionally shoot at people.

I’m not trying to bring perspective or make you look super square (you do seem VERY VERY SERIOUS THOUGH BECAUSE THAT HEADLINE IS JUST OUTRAGEOUS), I just wish that VP Cafe` would move in where Parnell’s Mini-Mart is. You guys wanna trade?

paul
12 years ago

You mean the headline is outrageous in a good way – thought I’d better point that out, because I don’t think the squares would get it. :-)

High
High
12 years ago

Squares. Are you in high school in the 80s still?