A Wrightsville Beach coffee shop won early approval from the town’s planning board on Tuesday night to expand its offerings and its service time, sending the shop’s conditional use permit request to the board of aldermen.
Located at 86 Waynick Blvd., The Workshop, which sells bagels and other sandwiches in addition to coffee and handmade jewelry, told the board it was planning to add a toaster and potentially other smaller food preparation equipment, which requires a conditional use permit. The change would classify the business as a carry-out restaurant, town staff told the board, and wouldn’t change parking requirements for the location, which doesn’t have tables for patrons.
As it now stands, the coffee shop can serve customers bagels, but they must use the self-service toaster in the shop.
“We just want to move it behind the counter,” owner Audrey Longtin said.
To do this, Longtin will also need approval from the county’s health department. Longtin said the shop will also consider adding other food preparation devices, like a panini press. Longtin said the coffee shop wants to expand its offerings in light of increased foot traffic in the area, which includes South Beach Grill and Kohl’s Frozen Custard.
“We plan to be there a long, long time, so we would like to step up,” Longtin said.
The board’s conditions also will allow the coffee shop to stay open to serve food until 6 p.m., potentially extending the shop’s current 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. operating hours. Longtin said she was considering extending the shop’s hours even until later to sell its sharks’ tooth jewelry, which town planners said was allowed under current zoning.
The Wrightsville Beach Planning Board also voted to change the town’s definitions of floor, floor area and measured area, following up on concerns from the town’s planning staff that the original definitions in the 2012 Universal Development Ordinance could be misinterpreted.
The definitions were rewritten to include subsections designed to make them more clear, town planner Zach Steffey said.
Planning board member David Culp noted the definitions treat elevators and staircases differently, potentially creating scenarios where elevators count more toward a structure’s square footage than a staircase.
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