The Wilmington City Council approved a new brewery on Randall Parkway despite some objections from neighbors on Tuesday night before taking up neighbors’ concerns in denying a halfway home off of Covil Avenue.
The council voted 6-1 to rezone the property at 3130 Randall Parkway to a community business conditional district for the Flying Machine Brewing Company, though some neighbors said the business would bring noise to the Devon Park neighborhood and potentially create runoff pollution in the nearby pond, prompting one councilmember to vote against the rezoning. However, other homeowners in the neighborhood spoke in favor of the business, and Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the location on the four-lane highway and by the Cross City trail was an ideal location for the 173-seat tap room.
Neighbors said sound from the brewery would travel over Randall Pond, which is located behind the site and borders several Devon Park homes.
The owners of the brewery told the council it would not be open later than midnight and would be closed by 10 p.m. on most nights. There will be live music inside, they said, with no outside amplification, and the number of seats of the tavern was reduced by 20 percent after meeting twice with neighbors.
To address neighbors’ concerns, the owners said they conducted noise tests, and will install an 8- to 10-foot-tall sound barrier around the building. There are also trees in the area that could help block the noise, the owners said.
“To the neighbors concerned about the noise, you have rights,” said Saffo, who said police could come and measure the decibels to ensure that the business was within town limits.
Councilman Kevin O’Grady said the brewery needed a buffer zone from the neighborhood, which he said went back to the council’s decision to add microbreweries to the community business zone without requiring the buffer.
“This is exactly the problem you get when you put a late-night, noise-generating establishment next to a neighborhood,” O’Grady said. “We should have a buffer when a site is located next to a neighborhood.”
Mayor Pro Tem Margaret Haynes said the proposal was well thought out and that a larger restaurant, with later hours, could win approval for the site.
Approval for the rezoning comes as Wilmington continues to grow its craft brewery industry. Saffo noted the city already has 10 establishments that brew specialty beers.
Meanwhile, the city council denied rezoning 210, 310 and 314 Covil Ave. to multi-family low density after several neighbors of the proposal said the proposed facility for male recovering addicts wasn’t appropriate for the neighborhood.
Jonathan Washburn, operator of the Tree of Life facility, said he planned to put a “group-home supportive” on the property. Several neighbors of the property said they were worried about a “halfway house” increasing crime in the area, while members of the city council said rezoning the property from residential could raise problems if it were sold.
City planning staff said there were no buffer requirements for group homes in multifamily zoning, which in this case would be located next to residential zoning, which does have a buffer requirement for group homes. O’Grady said approving the zoning change in that case would violate the spirit of the town’s zoning ordinances. Council members Paul Lawler and Earl Sheridan added the proposal wasn’t consistent with the city’s comprehensive development plan for that area.
Email [email protected]
