Westover

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.”

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Westover Decision Delayed Until Tuesday — The County Board voted on Saturday to delay a decision on live entertainment for the Westover Market’s beer garden until Tuesday, giving county staff three days to come up with permit conditions that would be more acceptable to concerned neighbors. [Sun Gazette]

Arlington Police Seek Tips in 1997 Cold Case — ACPD’s cold case unit is asking for the public’s help in solving the case of 17-year-old Vu Huynh, who was murdered outside Hi-Cue Billiards on Columbia Pike in March 1997. [Washington Examiner]

Arlington to Issue Bonds — The County Board has approved the sale of up to $207 million in bonds, to fund projects like the Arlington Mill Community Center, Long Bridge Park, the new Yorktown and Wakefield high schools and the Water Pollution Control Plant. The bonds will go on sale next month, and will be available to individual investors. [Arlington County]

Flickr pool photo by Mark C. White

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Empty Courthouse Office Building for Sale — The big, white Verizon office building at 1320 N. Courthouse Road is actually vacant — and for sale. After nearly 30 years as a tenant, Verizon left its offices in the building. The owner is now seeking interested buyers or joint venture partners. [GlobeSt.com]

Westover to Hold Easter Egg Hunt — Children 9 years old and younger are invited to participate in Westover Village’s Easter egg hunt on Saturday. The event is being held from 10:00 a.m. to noon next to the Westover Library. Admission is free and yes, the Easter Bunny will be there. [VisitWestover.com]

State Senate Candidates Forum — Democratic candidates for the 30th District state Senate seat participated in their first public forum of the campaign. Del. Adam Ebbin, Alexandria City Councilman Rob Krupicka and Arlington School Board member Libby Garvey answered questions about their stance on business issues and other policy matters. [Del Ray Patch]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Tejada, Moran Get ‘Snippy’ Over Immigration — At a work session Monday afternoon, County Board member Walter Tejada and Rep. Jim Moran got in a verbal ‘tussle’ when Tejada suggested that Democrats have not done much recently to advance the cause of immigration rights on a federal level. [Sun Gazette]

Westover Farmers Market Delayed — Organizers had hoped to launch a farmers market in Westover this spring, but it looks like red tape will delay their goal by a year. Farmers market boosters have secured verbal approval to use school property for the market, but the county zoning office says it will not grant a use permit until the county ordinance related to farmers markets is changed. [Falls Church News-Press]

W-L Launches New Student Newspaper Web Site — Washington-Lee High School’s Crossed Sabres student newspaper has a new web site. [W-L Crossed Sabres]

Westover Beer Garden Update

By ARLnow.com

The Westover Market is moving forward with plans to make its popular beer garden conform to county regulations.

Arlington County recently approved a building permit that will allow the market to build Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms — one step in the beer garden approval process. The other step will come on May 14, when Westover Market goes before the county board to ask for a live entertainment permit, which is necessary in order for the beer garden to host musical acts.

At the moment, the market is only permitted to seat nine people in the beer garden, which used to host large neighborhood gatherings.

Not everybody supports the market’s effort to become an entertainment and drinking venue, however. Before the county clamped down, a cadre of anonymous complainers would call authorities to kvetch about noise from the garden and smoke from its fire pits.

Homemade No Parking Sign in Westover?

By ARLnow.com

A tipster sent us this photo of a spray-painted no-parking sign in front of a dumpster on 11th Street N., near the intersection with N. Kennebec St., in Westover.

“What right does someone have to do this?” the outraged tipster asked. “Can I report this to the county?”

The answer is yes — county officials say the spray paint can be reported to the police as graffiti since it’s on public property.

It’s unclear who is responsible for the rogue no-parking sign — the owner of the residential complex, the waste disposal company or a random graffiti prankster — and it’s not clear if we’ll ever find out. Police say that unless the graffiti is gang-related, it’s simply noted in a report and referred to a county agency for clean-up.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Early Buds — Maybe Punxsutawney Phil was right. The photo above was taken by Flickr pooler Clio1789 near Rosslyn on Friday.

Dr. Dremo’s Site Set for Development — Construction could begin by the end of the year on the hallowed ground that once was home to Dr. Dremo’s and Taco Bell. The site, on the 2000 block of Wilson Boulevard, will house 154 residential units and 30,000 square feet of retail space. Meanwhile, a development on the 1800 block of Wilson Boulevard is still awaiting financing. The project — a 107,000 square foot office building — will eventually displace the Rhodeside Grill and Il Radicchio restaurants. [DC Mud]

Westover Beer Garden Forum Planned — A public forum has been scheduled to discuss the Westover Beer Garden. The meeting will take place at 7:00 p.m. on March 8, at the Westover Library. The forum will allow “all members of the community to come together to agree on common positions regarding the beer garden.” [Tara-Leeway Heights Civic Association]

Neighborhood College Program Accepting Applications — Arlington County is accepting applications for its “civic leadership development program.” The Arlington Neighborhood College offers a free, seven-week introduction to Arlington civic life and community participation. [Arlington County]

Flickr pool photo by Clio1789

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Punxsutawney Phil Doesn’t See His Shadow — Does that mean there will be an early spring in our area? Meteorologists, as usual, are skeptical. [Capital Weather Gang]

Falls Church Admits Debt to Arlington — Falls Church admits that it does, in fact, owe Arlington $2.2 million for shared use of the Arlington County jail. The city did not say how much of the debt it actually plans to pay. [Washington Examiner]

Complaints About Westover Beer Garden Continue — The Westover Market is moving forward with its plan to build a restaurant and bar, despite the fact that people in the neighborhood continue to complain about everything from noise to smoke coming from fire pits in the market’s outdoor beer garden. [TBD]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Westover Beer Garden Saga Continues — Several months into the battle between the county zoning office and the Westover Market beer garden, a final resolution still has not been reached. Tens of thousands of dollars have been allocated to building new code-compliant restrooms, but more must now be spent constructing a restaurant separate from the grocery section. County regulators “are doing their best to make me a Republican,” market manager Devin Hicks told the Falls Church News-Press.

Fun and Games at the Library — The Westover Library will host a game-playing get-together for all ages this afternoon. From 2:30 to 5:00 p.m., players will face off in board games, card games and Nintendo Wii. More from the Arlington Public Library blog.

Brgr:Shack Wants to Open This Month — A new “better burger” joint is hoping to open soon in Ballston. The efficiently-named Brgr:Shack, located across from the Ballston Metro, was originally slated to open in the fall. They’re now eying a January opening, according to TBD.

Flickr pool photo by Team Rank

View More Stories