New brewery, food truck approved
- Published: June 19, 2014
Village Planning Commission approved two conditional use applications this week for a tasting room for Vitruvian Brewery Company and a food truck at Antioch University Midwest. Plan board members approved both requests in line with staff recommendations at their meeting on Monday, June 9.
Vitruvian Brewing Company owners Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear were granted a permit to operate a tasting room for their new brewery located at MillWorks business park, just northeast of downtown. The business has not yet opened, but the Creepingbears plan to have just two employees and a 685-square-foot beer tasting room with a maximum customer capacity of 49 people.
Planners discussed the parking provisions and eventually agreed that though the lot is largely unmarked, MillWorks has ample parking for its three retail operations, including Yellow Springs Brewery, S&G Artisan Distillery and now Vitruvian Brewery. The permit was approved on condition that Vitruvian provide one handicapped space paved to the entrance and that hours of operation remain within the hours of the YS Brewery’s tap room hours, namely Wednesday–Friday, 3–10 p.m.; Saturday, 1–10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1–6 p.m.
Vitruvian Brewery is located in Suite C of MillWorks and occupies a total of nearly 4,000 square feet of production and retail space.
The planners also easily approved a food truck for Antioch University Midwest, whose campus adjacent to the Center for Business and Education on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road has no immediate access to food and drinks, other than vending machines. Plan board members John Struewing, Bill Bebko and Tim Tobey voted for the request, and Chris Till voted against, voicing concerns that the retail nature of the food truck violated the spirit of non-competition between the CBE and the central business district downtown. Planner Matt Reed was absent.
“My concern is that the strip mall would compete with the downtown retail district … Antioch University decided to move away from town and decided to build a building without a cafeteria,” Till said. A food truck vendor at the CBE is “not consistent with the Village comprehensive plan” and the village should “maintain the downtown as the retail heart of the village.”
The 10-acre Antioch Midwest campus is zoned educational rather than the planned unit development zoning of the CBE. Mobile vending, or food trucks, are permitted as a conditional use in educational districts.
Village Zoning Administrator Tamara Ennist explained that the mobile food vendor is not intended as a public retailer, but mainly for use by Antioch University students, faculty and staff. Though the vendor could possibly be used for public consumption in the case of special events on campus, the intent is not to draw consumers from off campus to the vendor, she said.
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