Allan Appel Photo
In the not too distant food future, you should be able to stroll the aisles inside without pulling in your elbows, while outside the big trucks delivering your favorite Roquefort will be able to park without winging other customers or scraping their cars.
At least, that’s the plan for an expanded and reconfigured Nica’s Market on Orange Street.
The proposal passed its last big public hurdle as the Board of Zoning Appeals approved the plan unanimously Tuesday night. A small administrative step remains before the plan goes forward.
In a subdued and largely administrative session on a plan that had aroused considerable local controversy, commissioners approved a City Plan Commission’s report and its recommendations. BZA commissioners approved four conditions imposed by the previous board, and struck two.
Previous efforts by the Sabino family, which owns Nica’s, to expand the store were met with far less support from city boards.
Click here for details of the proposed expansion.
Cheese Delivery at Nica’s
Its chief features include adding 1,900 square feet on the north side of the store, to create a separate aisle and checkout for take out deli buyers discrete from grocery shoppers. The parking lot would have a bigger entryway on Orange, thanks to a shift of 20 feet to the north. The lot would also be reconfigured so that, with the ratty garage in back torn down, trucks and vans could enter and maneuver more safely.
The conditions that survived as part of the approval included a maximum of 24 patio seats that would not interfere with the sidewalk; replacement of the existing trees with a more appropriate species subject to City Plan architect’s approval; the removal of the bike rack from the curbside to the private property.
The struck conditions were that “there will be no significant expansion of the deli-takeout business” and that “Nica’s must remain a grocery store without an increase in store aisles, and with accessory deli and takeout.”
City Plan staffer Tom Talbot, who advises the zoners, said the language was redundant as these points were implicit in the application. What’s more, he added, “I don’t know how you’d enforce it.”
How would you measure expansion? he asked rhetorically. By square footage or sandwiches sold? If someone is unhappy with Nica’s years from now, “they could say they’re expanding.”
The commissioners accepted his advice and voted unanimously to pass the proposal. Nica’s attorney Marjorie Shansky said said she could not predict when work might begin. There is a 30-day appeals period that the approval must survive.
Although with the zoning approval the portion subject to public discussion ends, still Nica’s must return to the City Plan Commission for approval of its site plan before issuance of a building permit. The site plan is largely quantitative and administrative dealing with utilities, engineering,and setbacks, and the public does not participate.
Wine Bar Steps Out
Meanwhile, representing another part of East Rock. Linda Fitrzpatrick debuted her plan to convert the vacant storefront at 973 State into Cave a Vin. Inspired by a friend who owns the nearby Brent Evans Piano, Fitzpatrick is applying for a tavern license to sell wine, high end beer, and cold appetitzers all organized around a neighborhood piano bar setting.
The place would be open seven days a week from the afternoon until 11:30 p.m. and have quiet music, perhaps performed by area students. “Piano and maybe guitar,” she said.
The application materials show a small lounge area with couch seating for four, table seating for 24, and bar seating for eight.
An habitue of this area of State Street, Fitzpatrick said the wine bar will be her first entrepreneurial venture. “I’ve been looking for a place for five years.”
Linda Fitzpatrick of Cave a Vin
She said the idea was not to compete with Dempsey’s or Portofino or the other restaurants in the area but to offer a quiet neighborhood place for people to have a glass of wine before or after dinner.
The proposal asks for a special parking exception to offer three parking spots where nine are required. So by ordinance, 973 State was referred to the City Plan Commission for its May meeting.
The materials also include a letter from Donald W. Kohn, a dentist at 991 State St. who asks the proposal be denied because of “the acute shortage of available parking in this neighborhood.”
Finally, the zoning board Tuesday night also unanimously passed all the exceptions and variances required to subdivide Sacred Heart Church on Columbus Avenue in the Hill so that the property can be sold to a Communidad Cristiana de Restauracion a Las Naciones. Click here for a background story.
Attorney Anthony Avallone, representing the church, said he was pleased by the result and expects the sale and subsequent renovations to move ahead expeditiously.