The city's zoning board rejected last night a controversial proposal for the first open-air bar and restaurant along the Fells Point waterfront.
After hearing angry community leaders, a city councilman and a police officer -- all of whom said they were fed up with the rowdy drinkers, parking problems and noise in the colorful, historic community -- the Board of Municipal Zoning Appeals turned down Charles Craven's proposal. It was for a Malaysian-style restaurant called Craven's Island on a strip of grass at the water's edge of 2039 Aliceanna St.
Since the board needed a unanimous vote from its four members to approve Mr. Craven's use of the land, the 3-1 vote in favor of the restaurant-bar sank the plan.
After the public hearing, board members debated whether Mr. Craven ever needed to come before the panel in the first place. Two members agreed with Mr. Craven's lawyer that the restaurant is already a permitted use on the land and doesn't need a "conditional use" approval from the board.
Mr. Craven said he was "very disappointed. I shouldn't need to come before the board in the first place." He said he plans to appeal the case.
The Craven's Island proposal is one of several tropical-style restaurant-bars being planned in the historic Fells Point and Canton Neighborhoods along the waterfront that could add more than 1,200 restaurant and bar seats to the area.
Nelson Adlin, a Fells Point businessman and community activist opposing the plan, testified that the Craven's Island proposal "is a new breed of bar that would provide space for outdoor drinking."
He said it is one of several proposals that could create a "noose surrounding the harbor" and could be better named "Outhouse Island."
Denise Whitman, a Fells Point business owner who is renovating a home near the Craven's Island property, said the plan "is a poorly conceived project" that will "create an immense parking problem."
She also objected to the tropical design, saying, "palm trees have no place on the Fells Point waterfront." And she was dubious that the business will be run as a restaurant.
The proposal "is a thinly disguised bar," she said.
In defense of the restaurant-bar, Melvin Kodenski, Mr. Craven's lawyer, said "a liquor license or a restaurant license is not inherently evil." He argued that Craven's Island would be a bona fide restaurant, cooking grilled foods outdoors and serving alcohol six months a year.
The establishment would have an open-air, hut-like structure, but no enclosed building.
He said Mr. Craven was prepared to spend $150,000 on the restaurant-bar that would employ 15 people.
Sgt. William Rowland, the neighborhood services officer for the police department's Southeastern district, joined the city's planning and housing departments in opposing Craven's Island.
He noted the Fells Point bars create a "manpower drain" on police as they attempt to deal with general rowdiness and parking problems in the area.
He said the neighborhood already serves more than 7,000 bar patrons when the bars are at full capacity. Parking problems have forced the police department to issue 600 parking tickets from July to December of last year, he added.