At its Sept. 27 meeting, the Planning Commission got an earful from residents who live near downtown. On the agenda was the application for construction of an outdoor stage and audience area between the Cathouse Lounge and the former Office Supply building next door. Fifteen citizens spoke against the idea they characterized as irresponsible, intolerable, simply wrong and a public nuisance. Commissioners also deemed the application inappropriate and voted unanimously to deny it.
Several of the speakers lived on Vaughn Street, which runs parallel to Main Street and directly across from and above the location of the proposed outdoor venue. Karen Lindblad said the music already emanating from inside the Cathouse is so loud she cannot hear her own music. “It’s not what I should have to put up with,” she commented. Josie Yerby called it “constant torture.” K.J. Zumwalt lives up the hill behind the Cathouse and claimed the music already rattles windows and disturbs her neighborhood. “The music is too loud even from the jukebox,” she said.
Connie Evans told commissioners she cannot have music in her business, Local Flavor, which is just down the street. “Our town has residents also,” she said. “It is not just a party town.”
Beau Satori commented, “We’ve fought this already,” referring to the situation of outdoor music coming from Chelsea’s in the past. Chelsea’s enclosed its music venue.
Referring to the Cathouse, Satori stated, “This place has already proved to be a bad neighbor… the music is still too loud even after customers are gone.”
Chair Pat Lujan also read into the record a letter from the board of the Eureka Springs Historical Museum, directly across the street from the Cathouse, urging Planning to deny the application because the project “would further degrade the surrounding area.”
Contractor Penny Pemberton represented the application for the owner, and said he just wanted to know what neighbors felt about this plan, and now he knows. She thanked those who expressed opinions, and said the owner would be willing to change his plans. Her recommendation was he should put the music venue inside the building next door to the Cathouse and add noise insulation if possible.
B&B suggestions off to council
Before the meeting, Planning held a workshop on updating City Code regarding Bed & Breakfasts in order “to tighten up some things,” as Lujan had described it. Commissioners have been holding workshops on this since May 24 in response to contentious response among citizens to three applications in the spring for Conditional Use Permits for Bed & Breakfasts.
Commissioners had stated confusion arose because of vague and inconsistent language in City Code regarding B&Bs. City Council in June even invoked a six-month moratorium on new B&B licenses to give Planning time to clean up inconsistencies.
Lujan emphasized their work had been to recommend changes to city council and whatever is changed would apply to new applications. These are the recommended changes:
- “No request for a CUP shall be granted if an existing CUP or legally-non-conforming permit is within a two hundred (200) feet radius in any direction of a new application.” Presently, Code states no CUP shall be issued if a CUP offering “same or similar services” was within 200 feet of the new application, but “same or similar” was replaced by “any CUP.” Also, a 200-feet radius replaced “200 feet in any direction of the primary frontage streets of the property line.”
- The statement “shall certify in the application that the owner or resident manager shall occupy the premises at all times” was replaced with “shall certify at time of application and upon request that the owner or a resident manager shall occupy the premises and register the establishment as their primary domicile.”
Vote was unanimous to send recommendations to city council.
Next meeting will be Tuesday, October 11, at 6 p.m.