6:40 p.m. update — Erik Dorn, one of the owners of Del Ray Pizzeria, emailed Patch the following statement:
"There is no question that the owners of Del Ray Pizzeria should have been more vigilant in assuring that their restaurant operated in accordance with all of the Special Use Permit conditions imposed by the City of Alexandria as part of the administrative approval allowing DRP to open its doors in October 2010. There are no excuses. I apologize to the community and the city.
"In January 2010, DRP received a Special Use Permit to open a neighborhood restaurant with 32 seats inside and 12 outdoors seats. The number of seats approved were the maximum number of seats that could we could have been approved given the number of parking spaces that are on the DRP property. At that time, we believed that as a new venture the number of seats would accommodate the projected level of business. If successful, it had been our plan to try to find additional parking so that we could apply for additional seats. Up to 100 seats can be approved administratively if the code required parking can be satisfied; otherwise, a parking reduction special use permit is required.
"Several things happened, in November 2010, DRP was fortunate to be able to engage Eric Reid from the just-closed Del Merei Grille to manage and operate the restaurant. This represented a change of course and a management team that was not involved in the early business planning and special use permit approval. To our pleasant surprise, DRP blossomed. With this success came the challenges of operating a small business; being profitable, meeting client expectations and taking care of day-to-day affairs. It was in this process that we got ahead of ourselves. Bar stools were added where before it was for standing patrons and 10 additional high-top tables were added to accommodate demand. People were happy and the business was sustainable. Reality struck when the Zoning Inspector made his annual inspection and noted a number of SUP issues. We promptly filed an application to amend the special use permit to increase the number of seats with a parking reduction and have addressed the other violations."
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currently has double the seating allowed by its special use permit, but city staff is allowing the restaurant to retain all the seats as it applies for a revised permit.
Alexandria Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Barbara Ross said the issue was discovered during an annual inspection of the pizzeria in December that coincided with a citizen complaint about the restaurant.
Ross said she believed the restaurant’s permit allows for 36 seats, but that the pizzeria is operating with more than 70 seats.
“We did find a series of violations, including too many seats,” Ross told City Council on Saturday at City Hall. “They immediately filed an SUP application to increase their numbers. It involves a parking reduction.”
The SUP application to expand the seating is scheduled to go before the Planning Commission in April. Also included in the application is the proposed addition of a private upstairs dining room that will be used only for special events. on the second level have been scrapped.
When asked by Mayor Bill Euille why the extra seats were not removed, Ross said staff used discretion in its enforcement priorities.
Ross said the approach was about tackling violations that were “easier to correct” and “less damaging to the success of the business.” Ross said her department had received a series of complaints from adjacent owners about a variety of violations at the restaurant, including some involving trash and deliveries. She said they’ve all been corrected and that staff received no complaints about the extra seating.
The issue was brought before council during Saturday’s open hearing period by Sarah Haut, a member of Del Ray Citizens Association Land Use Committee. Haut said an increase in seating in an area with limited parking can have a significant impact on neighbors.
“I thought the zoning ordinance and the permit process was put in place to maintain a balance between businesses and residents in a neighborhood,” Haut said. “In this case, we’re just going around that. I’m extremely disappointed in the way the city has handled this and I hope it doesn’t become the standard process.”
Haut’s remarks set off a discussion about the level of discretion city staff should use when enforcing permit violations.
Councilwoman Alicia Hughes called the extra seating a "flagrant violation of the law.”
Euille called the amount of extra seating “blatant.”
City Manager Rashad Young said discretion in this situation isn’t much different than a police officer deciding whether to issue a traffic ticket. He said the restaurant’s work to correct other violations represented “a good faith effort on behalf of the business to come into compliance, so then we felt comfortable exercising the discretion to get into compliance with the SUP.”
Young said council should have a conversation at a later date if it wants to develop rules about flexibility and discretion when enforcing permits.
“I think discretion is really important in this case,” Councilman Rob Krupicka said. “I don’t condone massive changes to people’s SUPs without oversight, and I think we have to talk about how we can have better oversight in a situation like this. But I also know that if staff would have taken a hard line in December and said 'You have to come into compliance,' this business would have had to shut down.”
Krupicka said if the decision is to take a hard line on violations, the city will be shutting down restaurants every week.
Councilman Paul Smedberg and Euille both said that no one wants to put a restaurant out of business.
“I would like to know when they actually put those seats in there,” Smedberg said. “We’ll have to take their word on it. Regardless of the circumstance, they took a chance.”
Sean Snyder, general manager of Del Ray Pizzeria, told Patch on Monday that the extra seats were the product of a "communication error" that occurred when an ownership change occurred just two weeks after the business opened. New ownership added the seats believing that there was no violation as long as they stayed within the fire code.
I agree this case is more extreme and it does warrant a re-think of what discretion means. Staff could have forced them to comply, but that would have shut them down while they waited for a new permit. That would have been very hard result on a small business that is struggling to get by. Staff could have reduced seats by some arbitrary number, but what number? I think the better approach would have been an earlier review of the business, instead of the one year review, to catch the issues sooner. You were on the ARHA board for a number of years. ARHA, in redevelopment, frequently asked that rules be bent and that extra density be given and that open space or historic preservation guidelines be bent. And it wasn't uncommon for ARHA to ask for changes due to financing needs or based on the difficulty of city rules. So you understand the challenge of working through the various city rules and requirements. There are hundreds of citizens that work closely with the city on a wide range of issues and they all contribute significantly. But you are right, there are disagreements at times and ultimately the Council has to make choices to settle those disagreements. I don't know what violations of the small area plan you mention are. Small area plans are guidelines and I think the city does a good job of following them. But I also know they can be changed. I know ARHA has asked for changes in the past. And after lengthy public review, they were often granted.
As for the Small Area Plans, you have only to look at the BRAC area to see how drastically and quickly a Small Area Plan was pretty much pushed to the side. Remember too that some of us have lived here far longer than others and have watched Small Area Plans morph into something far away from the agreed upon plan, especially to accommodate developers, often at the expense of the small area. Again this is a side bar meant only to illustrate one reason citizens are frustrated.
If you would like to see seating and parking requirements, go to the city's web site and look up the zoning ordinance. The city used to also have a Special Use Permit viewer where you could look up a specific SUP by address, but I don't think they keep it up to date.
Arlington has many parking garages the public can use when they frequent small businesses so they don't need to require small businesses to come up with parking. I think Del Ray has two parking lots that are open to the public. Perhaps an incentive to get the shared parking program going would be to allow for other parking lots that currently don't allow public parking to charge a fee for public parking.
Rather than City Staff approving DRP for a doomed ASUP*, staff should have told the DRP to have get their act together & file for a SUP. Sure maybe DRP could've fold their tent and Del Ray would have one less place to eat pizza/drink beer. Who knows, we might be better off and have gotten another cool place to shop instead. I predict City Council will approve 83 seats in the main dining room, 20 seats outdoors, 35 seats in the "events" room and a significant parking reduction. Sure, there will be a condition placed on use of the 35 event room seats but who will know enough to report it when DRP violates those condition? *Administrative Special Use Permit eligibility criteria and operation conditions are written into the ZO thereby eliminating need to sweat out uncertainty of public opposition at a public hearing.
Perhaps the application should be deferred until some version of the Parking Study recommendations are implemented as a plan. At the least, the SUP should include a requirement to participate in a shared parking plan when one is implemented. Other SUP's on Mount Vernon Ave have this requirement. Actually, I would think such a requirement would be automatically included in an SUP since it is recommended in the Mt Vernon Ave Overlay Zone Plan.
They're making money hand over fist.
As for the City - Planning & Zoning's 1-year SUP compliance review could have occurred between Jan 2011 (1-yr after permit issuance) and Oct 2011 (1-yr after first opening), as determined by PZ staff. A site inspection was done on Dec 15, 2011, fourteen months after opening and the day after the department received an insistent citizen's report of what is an blatant violation of any ASUP. Point is - the City depends on neighbors to report suspicious behavior. Have a question, then report it to Citizens Assistance**. Let the City figure who's responsible. Insist on accountability. Don't take 'No' or 'No response' as a suitable resolution to your question or complaint. *Alexandria Zoning Ordinance, pg 683, Supplement 11-52.7. The Zoning Ordinance is accessible from http://alexandriava.gov/Planning under Quick Links - Resources. **Drew - idea for a series of articles: which City Department does what, who takes our questions/complaints, what happens then. Reveal the maze of Departmental jurisdiction for us.
DRP owner Eric Dorn signed a document with the City agreeing to terms; he broke his promise. He's seeking a remedy and has apologized. Okay. The City, through regulations, promises to review applications, weigh the impact of and regulate business uses that are known to have an adverse impact on the neighborhood, and enforce these regulations. That includes a 1-yr review. They did not until 14 mos (and possibly greater) passed, and then because it was brought to their attention. Not okay. The issue is - keeping promises made. I hope "people like amy lu" (and those not) aren't dissuaded or intimidated from exercising their freedom of speech as long as we speak with civility. Update on my earlier statement: City staff determined the number of seats permitted qualified for delivery service: 32 + 12 = 44. I don't disagree with the justification though it does makes my head spin (Seasonal seating doesn't count toward parking, why delivery? Was this formula clarified in the Zoning Ordinance or the staff report? Issue of gov't transparency.)
As for residents and businesses disobeying many ordinances and rules daily, the most ironic was that while threats of penalties for snow shoveling sidewalks were consistently handed down, I kept busting my arse on the block in front of the farmer market area (city-owned space) because of all the ice and snow accumulation on the sidewalk after disembarking from my bus every day...until I finally alerted them two winters ago. Accidental and overlooked, I'm sure, but a self-imposed penalty or punishment would have been silly. Of course, an apology would have been nice. DRP at least did that.