A property owner seeking to change his tract from a townhouse district to a commercial zone, tear down the existing structure and build a new location for a national chain restaurant will go before West University Place residents on Monday to get feedback about his plans.
The owner of the tract at Kirby Drive and Tangley Road needs rezoning to tear down the Shipley Donuts and build a Potbelly Sandwich Works.
Bob Orkin owns a tract at Kirby Drive and Tangley Road, which he leases to Shipley Donuts. Since the store’s lease expires in December 2010, Orkin is asking the city to rezone his land to allow him to construct a new building for a prospective tenant, Potbelly Sandwich Works.
The tract is designated as a townhouse district, although it has been used for commercial purposes as long as anyone can remember. The Shipley Donuts is allowed to operate there as a pre-existing, non-conforming use. Orkin would be allowed to switch tenants as long as he didn’t make significant changes to the building or property, changes to the building footprint, but that will not work.
“New tenants coming in prefer not to shoehorn themselves into that tiny little building. Even if we put lipstick on the pig.” said Orkin’s attorney, Reid Wilson, when first presenting the plans to the Zoning and Planning Commission on Nov. 12.
It’s possible that residents with adjacent properties may take issue with the rezoning request due to concerns about additional traffic, parking, noise, and possible foul odors from garbage.
But Orkin and Wilson said the new building would actually have more parking, would comply with all the city’s commercial building ordinances, and it would be more aesthetically pleasing than Shipley Donuts. Councilman George Boehme in December said he is “excited” that the building would comply with city ordinances.
The public hearing about the rezoning application is Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the West U. City Council Chambers, 3800 University Blvd. The city council and the Zoning and Planning Commission will be present.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I went into the Shipley’s this past weekend as I have many times in the last 25 years. It was packed. Shame on Mr. Orkin for displacing a long-standing community favorite in hopes of cashing in. Shame on Councilman Boehme for buying into the ordinance change request. He, of all people, should understand the importance of customer loyalty and neighborhood aesthetics.
February 5th, 2010 at 8:48 am
The Boehme family loves Shipley’s Donuts also. My 11 year –old twins insist on a Shipley’s fix at least once each weekend. But this zoning application really has nothing to do with Shipley’s Donuts. Shipley’s is at the end of a long lease and have notified the property owner they cannot pay current market rents and will vacate the rental space when the lease term expires.
This zoning case is about getting a code compliant building that meets fire, safety and zoning codes. Today, that structure is far from code compliant. It does not meet current fire and safety ordinances. It also falls short in compliance with many provisions of the International Building Code, International Electrical Code and the International Plumbing Code, all of which have been adopted as part of the West University Place Code of Ordinances. However the current building is “grandfathered” in perpetuity – there is no requirement that it EVER become code compliant.
These “grandfather” rights let the property owner remodel the existing structure in basically any way they want as long as the building “footprint” doesn’t change. The “grandfather” rights also allow uses like a restaurant, a bingo parlor, a paint store, a bank, or a liquor store. This is all without a zoning change.
But the proposed zoning change would require any new structure to meet all current fire and safety laws along with a requirement the new structure been in full compliance with our zoning laws, the International Building Code, the International Electrical Code and the International Plumbing Code.
In my view, our permissive commercial property “grandfather” rules discourage compliance with our fire and safety laws and allow commercial property owners to basically ignore our zoning laws. At some point we need to modernize these “grandfather” laws to encourage code compliance. But, in the short term, his zoning change would at least get us a little closer to that goal.