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Board Approves Limited Live Music at Westover Beer Garden

By ARLnow.com

There will be concerts at Westover Market’s beer garden (5863 Washington Boulevard) this summer, after all, thanks to a unanimous vote by the County Board to approve a rare outdoor live entertainment permit — with some strict conditions.

Westover Market manager Devin Hicks has agreed to abide by 14 conditions, which were laid out by county staff in response to the concerns of residents who own homes near the beer garden. (Initially, staff recommended against the permit, but were instructed by the Board to come up with conditions more acceptable to concerned neighbors.)

The conditions include:

  • Live entertainment will take place only on Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., on Fridays from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
  • Music will be acoustic only — no amplifiers allowed, at least initially (see below)
  • The decibel level from the performances will not exceed 60 decibels before 9:00 p.m. and 55 decibels after 9:00 p.m. — which is consistent with the county’s residential noise control ordinance
  • Maximum capacity at the beer garden during live events will be 98
  • Performers will face Washington Boulevard, not the residential neighborhood behind the beer garden
  • Patrons and performers will be prohibited from dancing, unless the Market applies for and obtains a Dance Hall Permit
  • Westover Market will designate a “neighborhood liaison” to handle noise complaints
  • The Market will hire an acoustical expert to develop a “sound management plan”
  • The performances will be subject to random compliance checks by county staff
  • Live entertainment will only be performed between April 1 and October 31

As a show of good faith, Hicks also agreed to not use “piped in” or recorded music (e.g., a radio) in the beer garden on nights when there’s no live music, even though he would be permitted by right to do so. He will also voluntarily set up a live web cam that will display a decibel meter for residents to review.

The conditional live entertainment permit will be reviewed by staff in September. At that time, if the county determines that “the owner has complied with all conditions… to that point,” the beer garden may be granted approval for amplified music. The permit will come up for County Board review in February 2012.

“The Board is striving for a balance here that will both allow limited live entertainment outdoors at this neighborhood restaurant and protect the surrounding neighborhood,” County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said in a statement. “In the coming months, we will be monitoring the situation carefully.”

Civic Associations Support Beer Garden Plan

By ARLnow.com

Update at 2:10 p.m. on 5/14/11 — The County Board has put off final action on the Westover Beer Garden until Tuesday. It appears that the board is leaning toward approving some sort of live entertainment permit with additional restrictions.

Below are letters from the presidents of four civic associations in favor of a compromise that would allow the Westover Market’s popular beer garden to host live entertainment three days per week. The proposal is up for a vote by the County Board on Saturday.

County staffers are recommending against granting a live entertainment permit for the beer garden.

Dear Members of the County Board,

I am writing to you as the president of the Westover Village Civic Association. In the past few months, we have had several community meetings to discuss the Westover Beer Garden, allowing residents to voice their opinions about the garden and to seek common ground in addressing issues associated with it. During the last week of April, the civic association conducted a vote to determine community feelings. The residents of our civic association overwhelmingly voted to support the beer garden and its live music permit on the condition that it make a good faith effort to minimize noise disturbances to the immediate neighbors.

For most people in Westover and the neighboring civic associations, the Beer Garden is a treasured part of Westover life. It is an anchor for the community where neighbors young and old frequently gather on warm evenings to share a meal and listen to live music. Along with the new Westover Branch Library and Reed School, the beer garden has helped to strengthen a sense of community belonging and spur civic spirit. The garden has also revived the fortunes of the Westover Market, which faces stiff competition from the nearby Safeway and Harris Teeter without the niche advantage that the beer garden provides. The owners of the garden argue that live music brings in many customers and helps keep the business going.

The main problem with the garden is the noise that it has created in the past, disturbing the immediate neighbors who live directly behind it. These neighbors raise valid concerns that deserve to be addressed. Accordingly, it would be sensible to put a series of conditions on the beer garden live music permit. Based on the civic association vote, the majority of residents support limiting live music to 6 to 8 pm on Wednesdays and 6-10 pm on Friday and Saturday nights as a reasonable compromise. The sound levels should stay within existing county requirements. In order to enforce these conditions, the Beer Garden owners have committed themselves to investigate technical means to measure the sound at the fence of the nearest neighbor and record these measurements over time with data possibly posted to the Internet as a way of ensuring that the Beer Garden operates within legal limits.

Out of 109 valid votes from residents in the Westover Village Civic Association area, 90 voted to support the above recommendations; 13 supported fewer hours of operation for the live music; and 6 were opposed to granting this permit. I hope that you will take this input into account as you prepare to vote on the live music permit at your May 14 meeting.

Robert Orttung
Westover Village Civic Association President

More letters, after the jump.

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DEVELOPING — Staff Recommends Denying Westover Beer Garden Permit

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 5:25 p.m.) County staffers are recommending against Westover Market’s application for live entertainment at its popular outdoor beer garden.

The County Board is set to vote on the permit application at its meeting on Saturday. The permit would allow the beer garden to host concerts, open mic nights and other forms of live entertainment.

The presidents of four surrounding civic associations have all written letters to the County Board in favor of live entertainment at the beer garden. The leaders said their associations voted overwhelmingly in favor of a compromise plan between Westover Market and neighbors.

The compromise would allow the beer garden to host live entertainment from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, plus open mic nights from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, provided that the Market keeps the sound at decibel levels consistent with the county noise ordinance. The Market has also agreed to only host outdoor entertainment from April 1 to October 31, according to the staff report.

Nonetheless, some neighbors have remained steadfastly opposed to the beer garden and the noise and crowds it generates. Here’s the summary of the county staff recommendation against the permit:

The applicant is proposing a use permit for outdoor live entertainment in association with a restaurant at the Westover Market, located in the Westover Shopping Center. The applicant requests approval for live entertainment in the Market’s outdoor café, popularly known as the “Beer Garden”. The existence of the Beer Garden itself would not be affected by this decision, only whether live entertainment is permitted in that Beer Garden. Staff’s practice has been to not permit outdoor live entertainment due to the negative effects such use would have on the surrounding area and land use conflicts. The proposed use is located in a low-density area in close proximity to single-family dwellings. Several immediate neighbors have raised concerns over the noise generated by past (and unapproved) live entertainment in the outdoor café Beer Garden. Approving the subject use would likely lead to future requests from restaurants and nightclubs throughout the County for outdoor live entertainment, including the increasingly popular rooftop bars , allowing more intense uses with substantial adverse effects on surrounding residential properties.

Staff does not support the request for several reasons: The outdoor café’s close proximity to single-family residences (residential back yards abut the shopping center parking lot), and the low-density and low-activity character of the Westover Shopping Center area and the “C-1” Zoning District in general; practical difficulties in the enforcement of live entertainment conditions and noise and capacity regulations which largely rely on self-enforcement, and the present applicant’s past history of noncompliance with County ordinances and regulations. Furthermore, only once before has the County Board approved a request for outdoor live entertainment (SoBe in Clarendon, located in a “C-O” zoning district); that was termed an “experiment” and was approved only with the justification that the location was a high-density commercial area far away from residential uses. Therefore, staff recommends denial of the use permit request for a restaurant with live entertainment.

The permit does not address the legality of the beer garden itself.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Mixed Signals During Fire Alarms at Senior Facility — During fire alarms at The Jefferson senior living facility in Ballston, a recorded voice tells residents to evacuate the 21-story building via the stairwell. Except, for safety reasons, most residents are supposed to remain in their condo with the door shut. This has confused some elderly residents, who risked injury by attempting to walk down long flights of stairs during fire alarms. While acknowledging the inconsistency, both building management and the fire department say they can’t change the recorded message due to “liability” reasons. [Washington Post]

Politico Reporters to Speak at Rosslyn Lecture Series — Politico White House reporter Julie Mason and congressional reporter Jonathan Allen will be the speakers at Rosslyn’s “Rooms with a View” lecture series next week. Mason and Allen will discuss “Washington’s divided political landscape” and take questions from the audience. The event is free (RSVP required). It will be held on Thursday, May 19, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Boeing conference center at 1200 Wilson Boulevard. [Rosslyn BID]

Papery Closing Rumors — There’s more evidence that Clarendon stationery store The Papery may be closing, despite employees’ insistence that they’re preparing to add new stock to the largely empty shelves. The Papery’s space is listed as “for lease” on a commercial real estate firm’s web site. And The Papery’s own web site no longer exists. [Clarendon Culture]

Sign Needed at Rosslyn Safeway? — Is a one-way sign needed across from the Rosslyn Safeway to prevent confused drivers from heading the wrong way on Wilson Boulevard? [Ode Street Tribune]

Morning Poll: Mother’s Day Spending

By ARLnow.com

Mother’s Day is big business in the U.S.

Between the cards, the flowers, the brunches and all the other accoutrements, Sunday’s little holiday for mom will have many local businesses seeing green. Of course, it’s the thought that counts, not the price tag — but we were wondering how much you were planning on spending on your own mother this weekend.

(If your mother is no longer with us, you may tell us how much you’re planning on spending on your wife or any other important mom in your life.)

District Taco Gets ABC License; Will Expand into D.C.

By ARLnow.com

Big news for District Taco fans.

The restaurant, at 5723 Lee Highway, received its state alcoholic beverage permit today, according to owner Osiris Hoil. That means the eatery — which has thus far been limited to serving soda, juice, water and coffee — will be able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo tomorrow (Thursday) with cold cervezas.

We also learned today that District Taco is planning on opening a second brick-and-mortar restaurant by the end of the year. The restaurant will open somewhere in D.C. proper, Hoil confirmed.

Hoil says they haven’t settled on a location, but hinted that he hopes President Obama will drop by one day. On its web site, District Taco says it also has plans to expand outside the Washington area.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Above: A look back at last year’s presentation of a steel beam from the World Trade Center at Arlington County Fire Station 5. Firefighters from Fire Station 5, in Pentagon City, were among the first to respond to the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

School Budget Approved — The Arlington County School Board has approved a new $475 million budget for FY 2012. The budget funds pay raises for teachers and staff, expands professional learning activities for teachers and eliminates ‘early release Wednesdays’ at four elementary schools. It also includes $1 million to study options for addressing the school system’s looming capacity crisis. [Arlington Public Schools]

Columbia Pike Farmers Market Returns — Sunday marked the start of the summer season for the Columbia Pike Farmers Market. [Pike Wire] (Disclosure: The organizer of the farmers market is an ARLnow.com advertiser)

Arlington Home to Fast-Growing Companies — Arlington is home to six of the 50 fastest-growing privately-held companies in Virginia. [Sun Gazette]

Revised Sign Regulations On the Way

By ARLnow.com

New sign regulations may be ready for adoption by the fall, Arlington County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said at this afternoon’s board meeting.

Zimmerman said that the board and county staff have been listening to feedback from business owners, many of whom bemoan the county’s sign ordinance as too restrictive. The county is still in the process of collecting comments on its web site and some additional sign focus groups are in the works, Zimmerman said.

County staff will work with a consultant to review the feedback and to review “best practices from around the country on sign regulation.” A draft copy of some of the regulation changes should be ready for review by the board and community groups in July. If all goes well, Zimmerman hopes to have the new sign ordinance ready for adoption “in the fall.”

The goal, Zimmerman said, is to “make business easier to do in Arlington and make the process better for everyone.”

County Issues 2010 Development Stats

By ARLnow.com

Despite continued economic weakness across the country, development and construction in Arlington continued at a relatively strong pace last year, a newly-released report reveals.

In 2010, developers began construction on more than 600,000 square feet of retail and office space, while construction wrapped up construction on another 600,000 square feet of space. Construction started on 477 multifamily (apartment and condo) units, while 1,438 units were completed.

A majority – 68 percent – of on-going commercial construction last year took place in Ballston. A similar majority of the multifamily construction – 67 percent – took place on Columbia Pike.

For more information, see the 2010 Development Trends report from Arlington County’s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development.

Wacky Conventions Stuff County Coffers

By ARLnow.com

In January, the National Mastitis Council brought its annual meeting to Arlington. Approximately 400 people from around the country and around the world gathered for four days and three nights at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City to discuss the latest advances in improving milk quality and maintaining the health of cow udders.

The total estimated economic impact for local businesses: $400,000. Total estimated hotel tax revenue: $11,250.

Each year, dozens of such specialized industry events quietly come to Arlington, spend bundles of money and leave without most residents even knowing they were here. All told — while there’s no official accounting of it — there are likely hundreds of meetings, conventions, tour groups and reunions that stay in Arlington hotels on an annual basis. And there are millions of dollars to be made from those gatherings — by hotels, restaurants, taxi companies and the county government.

The average size of a meeting booked through the Arlington Convention and Visitor’s Service is 175 people, according to Arlington Economic Development spokeswoman Karen Vasquez. The average meeting attendee spends $116 per day in Arlington on things like meals, transportation, shopping and attractions. Meanwhile, the average hotel room in Arlington is just over $165 per night.

Put that together, and you have the average three-day meeting producing about $118,650 worth of spending in Arlington County. Of that spending, the county collects a 4 percent tax on meals and a 5.25 percent tax on the hotel room. Not a bad haul for a random meeting of a group that most people have probably never heard of — like the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals.

(The hotel tax will be going down to 5 percent in 2012 thanks to political wrangling in Richmond. The 0.25 percent that Arlington will lose had been going to fund Arlington’s tourism promotion efforts. In its new budget, the County Board included one-time funding to keep the tourism office open through the middle of 2012.)

After a jump, a list of some of the other meetings that have recently come or will be coming to Arlington.

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