business

Audubon-Riverside neighborhood to consider Johnny V’s, several other issues

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A number of ongoing land-use issues will be discussed tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 4) by the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association, according to the meeting’s agenda. Among the issues before the board:

The good-neighbor agreement with Johnny V’s restaurant, agreeing not to oppose its opening in exchange for a number of operating concessions,
The zoning classification of the apartments at State and Tchoupitoulas, which residents are concerned could become some sort of medical complex,
An update on the Kidutopia child-care facility at 315 Webster,
A letter to Walgreens outlining operational concerns for the proposed Magazine Street store. The meeting will begin at 6:45 p.m. at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 616 Eleonore Street.

business

Johnny V’s request splits City Planning Commission, heads to City Council without recommendation

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A request by the proposed Johnny V’s restaurant to be allowed to open in spite of unauthorized expansions divided the City Planning Commission on Tuesday, sending it to the City Council for a decision with no formal recommendation either way. The commission had postponed its decision on Johnny V’s presentation last month, awaiting the outcome of negotiations over a contract to use the parking lot of nearby Perlis as a way of compensating for the added space in the restaurant. (The surrounding neighborhood association’s support for the project is contingent on that contract as well.) Stephen Kroll, a member of the planning commission staff, told the commission Tuesday that “no formal agreement” had been reached with Perlis, but that the staff continues to recommend approval of the changes. Johnny V’s has five spaces of its own, and has agreements with a nearby doctor’s office for six more and with the Shell station for 12, Kroll said, far more than the City Council had previously approved even if negotiations with Perlis fail — even though the restaurant will increase demand for on-street parking nearby regardless. “You’d probably need at least 50 spaces to ensure that every vehicle associated with both of those uses is off the street,” Kroll said, referring to Johnny V’s and the adjoining Monkey Hill Bar.

business

Planning commission decision on Johnny V’s expected Tuesday

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The City Planning Commission is expected to make a decision Tuesday on whether to allow the proposed Johnny V’s restaurant on Magazine Street to open with a number of changes made to the building without the city’s permission. A contractor added a small amount of first floor space and a second floor to the building (now subject of a lawsuit by the restaurant) that was not included in Johnny V’s previous plans with the city, so the restaurant owners are now asking for permission to proceed with those changes in place. The restaurant has promised a number of concessions, such as sealing off the second-floor space and securing additional parking, to satisfy neighbors opposed to the project — narrowly winning the approval of the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association last week. Last month, the City Planning Commission heard the matter but deferred a decision until the parking agreements could be negotiated. The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, which begins at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, includes the Johnny V’s item, but because the public hearing has already been held, it’s unclear whether the commission will accept additional comments from the public before it votes.

business

Johnny V’s, Gabrielle restaurants seek new agreements with neighborhood

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Two controversial restaurants that have been on the drawing boards for years met with the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association on Tuesday in search of residents’ approval for agreements that might win the city’s favor and allow them to open. Greg Sonnier, still seeking to reopen his former Gabrielle restaurant in the Uptowner building on Henry Clay Avenue, convinced the association to reopen discussion of his plans once again. And the owners of Johnny V’s, a restaurant proposed for the space next to Monkey Hill Bar on Magazine, offered a detailed list of operating conditions that barely won the association’s blessing over their qualms about the unauthorized addition of second-floor space. The Gabrielle | Sonnier lost his well-known Mid-City restaurant in the floods after Hurricane Katrina, and subsequently bought the Uptowner building on Henry Clay Avenue, intending to reopen there. After the city informed him of zoning issues with the property, Sonnier and ARNA drafted a good-neighbor agreement together in 2007 that would govern issues such as parking around the location, but a lawsuit derailed his rezoning effort and he withdrew from the agreement without signing it.

business

Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association meets tonight

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The Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association will holds its monthly meeting at 6:45 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 6), at a new location, the St. Paul United Church of Christ at 616 Eleonore, the Patton Street entrance. No agenda was available Tuesday morning, but one pending issue before the neighborhood has been discussion of the proposed Johnny V’s restaurant next to Monkey Hill Bar. Once the meeting begins, live coverage will be provided in the box below.

business

Whole Foods granted minor concessions; Poydras Home addition approved and Monkey Hill expansion deferred

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After hearing from a procession of worried neighbors, the City Planning Commission voted to reject all but the least controversial of Whole Foods’ requested operational changes, possibly reducing months of efforts by the Magazine Street grocery into an extra hour of business on Sunday and the ability to put plants in front of the store. A major addition to the nearby Poydras Home retirement community was approved in accordance with the architects’ and neighbors wishes, but a decision was deferred on the expansion of the Monkey Hill bar into Johnny V’s restaurant amid concerns about parking and the nature of the expansion itself. Whole Foods

Whole Foods Arabella Station spent months negotiating with the surrounding Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association in hopes of support for five requested changes to its operating agreement with the city: the ability to stay open until 9 p.m. on Sundays (as on the other six nights), more than one 18-wheeler per day, expanded hours in which deliveries are allowed, permission to display plants for sale on the front patio, and permission to host live music once or twice a month. On the deliveries, the most controversial issue, the store has argued that more 18-wheelers would mean fewer smaller trucks in total, and less impact on the neighborhood. Neighbors have accused the store of violating its existing operating rules, and said the store is already a shopping destination far too large for the small surrounding neighborhood and streets that should not be given additional concessions.

business

City urges Poydras Home to provide less parking for new building

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In a surprising move near a busy commercial corridor, city planning staffers are suggesting that a three-story addition to the Poydras Home retirement community be accompanied by fewer off-street parking spaces than the project originally envisioned, in an apparent effort to maximize the site’s green space. Poydras Home currently has 35 parking spaces in a main lot off Jefferson and a smaller one off Leontine, according to the City Planning Commission staff report on the project prior to Tuesday’s meeting. The new building at the facility would raise the required number of off-street parking spaces to 47, a figure that architects had planned to meet by adding two more spaces in the Jefferson lot and creating 10 spaces along a new driveway in front of the new building. Any change to the dense commercial stretch of Magazine between Jefferson and Nashville in the past year has been fraught with parking worries, and neighbors to the building likewise said in June that they were concerned about the parking impact of the Poydras Home project. After meeting with the architects, however, the neighbors said they were reassured by the developers’ promises not to ask for a parking waiver.

business

Three projects along upper Magazine Street to be heard by city this week

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Three projects planned near Magazine Street’s upper end — the Poydras Home expansion, the Whole Foods operations changes, and the creation of a new restaurant next to Monkey Hill bar — will be heard by the City Planning Commission on Tuesday, according to the meeting’s agenda. All three projects have been the subject of recent discussions by the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association:

Whole Foods is seeking a number of changes to the operating conditions it agreed to with the city when it first opened, including later hours, more 18-wheeler deliveries, live music and plants for sale outdoors. The requests have drawn mixed reactions — ranging from total opposition by some of those who live closest to basic acceptance by those who view the grocer as a good neighbor — so the neighborhood association endorsed some requests and rejected others. The request for 18-wheelers more than once a day has been most controversial. Whole Foods says the change would actually reduce truck traffic into the store, but neighbors want the deliveries to be made offsite and carried over in smaller vehicles, to reduce noise in area and wear on the streets.

city government

Water pressure to drop Saturday along Camp and Magazine around Jefferson

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Repairs to a fire hydrant and valves on a water main will cause low water pressure from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the area along Camp and Magazine streets around Jefferson Avenue, according to the Sewerage and Water Board. Both Magazine and Camp will be affected from Arabella to Soniat, officials said. Two cross streets, Leontine and Joseph, will be affected from Coliseum to Constance. Additional blocks in the area may be affected as well.

business

Whole Foods, neighbors prepare for hearing before city

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The nearest neighbors believe Whole Foods is asking too much with its latest requests, according to our reporting partners at WWL-TV. The Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association agreed to some of Whole Foods’ requests in May, and asked the grocery to rethink others before its Aug. 23 hearing before the City Planning Commission.