Wile Calls for Review of San Pablo Ave. Beer Pub Application

A planning commissioners approved last week, which they said they hoped would help revitalize San Pablo Avenue, will be appealed by following concerns expressed by neighbors about safety, noise, parking and trash. 

Wile announced her intention to appeal the application during Tuesday night's council meeting after six neighbors said, during public comment, that they were worried about smoking, noise, parking, safety and garbage problems that could result from the business opening. 

(About 20 neighbors from a nearby condominium complex, Villa De Albany, turned in a petition to the city in October citing these concerns. Several of the people who spoke Tuesday said they live in the complex.)

Neighbors asked the city to put more restrictions on the pub and limit its operating hours. 

"There's a lot of children living in our complex," said Orwin Juntanamalaga. "We don't want people standing in front of our complex smoking. They're going to be parking in front of our complex. They're going to be stumbling home drunk and that's going to be kind of scary for our children."

Another neighbor, Jordan Sampietro, said parking is already difficult in the area, and asked for the council to enforce the police-recommended closing time of 10 p.m. nightly for the pub. 

(Currently, the pub is set to close at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. These hours will be the same as the next door hamburger restaurant. Commissioners were clear last week that the business should close promptly, rather than serving food or drinks all the way through to closing time.)

Shannon Dillon asked what would be done about "the noise and the smoke from all their cigarette butts." 

"I can't have that right down from my building," she said. "I'd like to see some more conditions on the permit that was granted."

Another neighbor, Roger Oberholzer, said it's time for the city to put an end to new eateries and bars in Albany altogether.

"The concern I have is that the amount of restaurants and drinking establishments we already have is fine as it is," he said. "If we allow another beer drinking establishment to open up, the city needs to be able to make sure the other city residents are safe and that the city remains clean."

After the public comment session, Community Development Director Jeff Bond explained the process for an appeal, which must take place within 14 days of the decision being questioned.

There's a $550 fee, unless a council member takes up the cause on his or her own. (Each council member is allocated one free appeal each year.)

Following Bond's explanation, and some gasps from people in the room in response to the cost of the appeal, Councilwoman Wile said she planned to appeal the decision. 

Her announcement was met with cheers from several people in the back of the room.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

The beer pub application, for 745 San Pablo Ave., would be run in conjunction with a  set to open next door to it, owners said before the Planning & Zoning Commission. (Owners said they hoped both businesses would open later this year.)

The pub does not yet have a name. 

According to last week's Planning Commission staff report, which is attached to this story as a PDF, the property is a 7,500-square-foot lot that includes three commercial spaces. The pub would be built in the middle space, measuring 1,834 square feet, and would have an interior doorway connecting it to next door, at 747 San Pablo.

The pub, which would include seating and has a capacity of 50 people, would offer beer on tap for on-site consumption, as well as bottled beer to go. 

From the staff report: "According to the applicant, the beer establishment is loosely modeled on 'Beer Revolution' located at Jack London Square in Oakland."

The pub first came before planning commissioners in October. 

A "SOLANO CELLARS" FOR BEER

In October, one of the partners in the pub, Saed Toloui, said he saw it as a place to educate people about a variety of beers.

It would be a "specialty store," he said, similar to  in terms of its goals of education and appreciation. It would carry 150-200 types of beers, and have a refrigerator where people could select bottles to take home. 

The pub would have taps that rotated weekly or biweekly, and offer simple food and snacks such as cheeses and cold cuts. 

"The focus of the whole business is about tasting and understanding beer," Toloui said, "consuming it and enjoying it. It's completely different from the businesses and bars around it." 

Neighbors said at the October meeting that they were worried about the same issues that came up Tuesday: parking, noise, disorderly conduct and smoking chief among them. 

ON PARKING

In October, commissioners asked city staff to assess the availability of parking on San Pablo and neighborhood streets by the proposed pub on a typical weekend night. 

Last week, city planner Anne Hersch said she surveyed the area, within a 500-foot radius, and found that about 70 percent of nearby parking spaces were full at both 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on a Friday night. 

Planners said they found that to be sufficient to approve a nine-spot parking exception for the pub, which, according to the planning application, used to be a grocery store. (It has, however, sat vacant for a number of years.) 

ON CLEANLINESS

According to last week's staff report, the pub owner, Faramarz Pakzad of Berkeley, met with the president of the homeowner's association for Villa De Albany to address concerns. 

Pakzad reported that he employs someone who cleans the interior and exterior of the business twice a week. To address security and noise issues, he has offered to hire security at the front door if the "business is successful and has substantial foot traffic." 

VIBRANT... OR OVERLY BOISTEROUS? 

Planning commissioners said last week and in October that this type of business is exactly the type that could improve Albany's atmosphere.

"This is the vitality," said Planning Commissioner David Arkin in October. "Taverns, along with restaurants and bookstores are the sort of walkable environment that a vibrant district tends to have." 

Commissioner Stacy Eisenmann said that filling empty storefronts would be an improvement on San Pablo Avenue. 

"Here's a business that wants to try to fill a space that's empty," she said. "It's good for Albany to fill that space. That pulls people into the community."

Commissioner Leo Panian said it would come down to what residents would like Albany to look like in the future, but acknowledged the neighborhood concerns.

"Do you want a place that's filled with nail and hair shops, or the alternatives: restaurants, bar types, dispensaries," he said. "San Pablo is a tough space to be a family, and a tough space to be a business.... We try to make tough compromises."

Panian said he saw the pub as "maybe not a family kind of place, but an alternative to driving to Pyramid" brewery in Berkeley. "The closest thing (in Albany) is on Solano... It's less formal and it doesn't impress you as the kind of place is. It's associated with food, food culture and pedestrian traffic." 

Last week, commissioners approved a one-year review of the business to address any concerns and assess how it was working in the neighborhood.

"Call it 'vibrant' or 'overly boisterous,' depending on your opinion," said Panian last week. "We'll make sure to have a review period to discuss the real impacts."

Members of the public can write to the City Council directly at cityhall@albanyca.org, addressing it to "City Council" in the subject line, or Community Development Director Jeff Bond at com-dev@albanyca.org.

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If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.