Closed for New Year's

Rather amazes me how many downtown restaurants close up during the week from Christmas to New Year's, especially New Year's Eve which is a night that people really want to go out for a nice meal. This is the time of year when visitors are in town and people have time off and are more likely to want to go out to eat, or so I would think. Maybe, after years of experience, however, restaurant owners know otherwise.

Nest Closing

Nest Arts, the local artists boutique on the Carbondale, is closing its doors. Apparently, despite sales being up nationally over the Christmas season, the store's sales were not strong enough this holiday to carry it into 2018. It looks as if the store will close for most of January, then reopen at the end of the month for a liquidation sale of store displays and merchandise not owned by the artists that had them on display.

Eclipse Co-ordinator

Hopefully the city will hire a full, or at least part time, eclipse co-ordinator in 2018. The city has 7 years to plan for the next eclipse so they cannot say they didn't have any advance notice and having someone working on it now means they can start cor-ordinating with stakeholders such as SIUC and Walker's Bluff, which both operated pretty independently of the city's plans this year, at least as I can tell. One comment I heard during one of the wrap up meetings was that SIUC's activities ended at the campus boundaries and were focused on keeping people on campus as much as possible. We will probably have another 50,000 people coming to town, more than any other event Carbondale puts on will draw so now is not too early to start planning.

Christmas Lights

Drove around looking (or hoping to look) at Christmas lights last night and, as I have found in pass years, only about a quarter of the houses in the southwest and central parts of town had lights on them. I was reminded of the screen in Scrooged when Bill Murray's character is driven to his childhood home in the past and all the houses surrounding his were lit while his remained dark, only this time in reverse, with one lit house surrounded by darkened houses.

The Chancellor had made mention of putting up an elaborate set of lights around the Old Main part of campus but I guess he meant for Christmas 2018 since that area remained dark last night as well.

El Greco's Closed

Originally, El Greco's had announced they were closing on Dec. 23 but apparently pushed the day up a week. Reasons given were declining student population, unfriendly city business practices and the construction downtown, which made it harder for customers to get to the restaurant  last summer.

Brand Presentation

In case you would like to take a look at the branding presentation for Carbondale presented by NorthStar, you can look it over here. Today's Carbondale Times also has some more background on the logo, including that the purple/maroon top part is actually a C, representing Carbondale and maroon for SIUC.

Firehouse on Agenda

Remember the fire station on S. Oakland that the city sold for use as studio space? The purchasers are requesting a Special Use Permit  at tonight's  council meeting for a "drinking place with alcoholic beverages" i.e. a tasting room and also indicate they plan to apply for a beer garden permit at a future date. Due to neighbors' concerns about essentially a bar operating at that location, Due to those concerns, the Planning Commission stipulated that "”the sale and consumption of alcohol be limited to the interior of the old firehouse building as indicated in the applicants’ proposal." However, the resolution coming before the Council removes that stipulation due to Deas and Smith's expressed plans to apply for the beer garden permit at a future date.

Here's the agenda item with background:

John Deas and Alison Smith are requesting the rezoning of two parcels of property totaling roughly 0.92 acres (40,070 sf) located at 300 South Oakland Avenue from R-1-8, Low Density Residential, to NB, Neighborhood Business. This application has been put forth in order to facilitate the applicants’ desire to use the property and buildings as creative working, gallery, and social space for Carbondale’s artistic community. The applicants are further requesting a Special Use Permit for a tasting room, classified as a drinking place with alcoholic beverages, at this location.

A public hearing regarding both the rezoning and special use request was held on November 29, 2017, by the Carbondale Planning Commission. During this meeting, the Planning Commission moved to recommend the properties' rezoning along with the approval of the Special Use permit with the following conditions:

1. The hours of operation be limited from 7 AM to 10 PM as dictated by the standards outlined in the Neighborhood Business District.
2. That the sale and consumption of alcohol be limited to the interior of the old firehouse building as indicated in the applicants’ proposal.

In addition, the Commission recommended that the stormwater drainage from the parking area, which adjacent property owners indicated has been a problem, be remedied by the City of Carbondale prior to the properties' sale.

Since the public hearing, more information regarding the development of the site has been provided by Mr. Deas. In particular, the applicants plan to apply for a beer garden permit in conjunction with their liquor license application. To accommodate the applicant's request this condition has been removed from the attached Resolution.

Attached for City Council review are the following:

1. An Ordinance approving and a Resolution denying the rezoning request from R-1-8, Low Density Residential, to NB, Neighborhood Business.
2. A Resolution approving and a Resolution denying the Special Use Permit for a drinking place with alcoholic beverages.
3. A copy of the unapproved minutes of the Planning Commission for PC 18-09.
4. A copy of the staff report to the Planning Commission for PC 18-09.

Additional Information:

1. Constituent/Advisory Body Impact: The Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on November 29, 2017, and voted (4-yes, 1-no) on a motion to recommend the approval of the rezoning request. The Planning Commission further voted (4-yes, 1-no) on a motion to recommend approval of the Special Use Permit for the subject property. A notice of public hearing was published in the Southern Illinoisan newspaper on November 12, 2017, and twenty-three (23) property owners within 250 feet of the subject property were notified of the hearing by certified mail. The applicants were present, two people voiced general concerns, and three people spoke in opposition to the request.
2. Financial Impact: None.
3. Staff Impact: Staff will be responsible for all applicable permits and licenses.