Oak Lawn Committee: Liquor Store is ‘Not a Wanted Use’ For Unicorn Lot on Fairmount Street
Share News:
The “unicorn lot” at 3104 Fairmount Street could become a liquor store, but not if members of the Oak Lawn Committee have their way.
More than 100 Uptown-area residents and business owners joined a Feb. 6 meeting of the Oak Lawn Committee via Zoom to discuss a Specific Use Permit request for the site at Fairmount and Carlisle streets.
The site, owned by Tiny & Gigi LLC, is near Alamo Manhattan’s prestigious Uptown Marriott and surrounded by other redevelopment projects. It’s been referred to as a “unicorn lot” because it’s essentially an old house in a commercial area with just a few parking spaces. No one seems to know what to do with it.
The 5,968-square-foot lot includes a 1,534-square-foot home and has previously served as Random Bobbitt Provisions vintage retail shop and a framing and rare maps gallery.
There doesn’t appear to be a consensus on the best use for the site, but it’s clear what people don’t want.
“We think [a liquor store] is a terrible idea and strongly oppose it,” Alamo Manhattan president Matt Segrest told CandysDirt.com. “There is a well-known correlation between violent crime and liquor stores and we do not want that in our neighborhood. Alamo Manhattan has worked very hard and invested hundreds of millions to create a dynamic and inviting urban neighborhood and we will expend great resources to preserve and protect it.”
Back to The Drawing Board?
Alamo Manhattan wasn’t the only property owner to submit a letter of opposition.
Another letter, sent by attorney Michael Weaver on behalf of property owner Selene Capital Development LLC, also mentioned the correlation between liquor stores and crime.
“My client owns the properties at 2905 Maple Avenue and 2917, 2921 and 2923 Fairmount and is absolutely opposed to a liquor store opening,” Weaver wrote in his letter. “We are in the process of planning real estate development projects that will improve the atmosphere and property values of the Oak Lawn area – a liquor store does the opposite. We urge you to please reject the SUP for 3104 Fairmount Street. Approval of this SUP would detrimentally impact the property values and increase crime in the Oak Lawn area.”
Andrew Ruegg with Masterplan land use consulting firm acknowledged the letters opposing the Specific Use Permit and said the owners are reconsidering plans for the site.
“Those opposition letters … kind of put it into focus that the liquor store was not a wanted use,” he said. “We’re certainly happy to work with surrounding neighbors and the committee to think of how to reframe this particular request. We are also looking at an SUP with a retail food store use.”
The site is at the north corner of Carlisle and Fairmount streets surrounded by multifamily to the north, and office, hotel, and proposed multifamily to the south, Ruegg said.
“What we’re attempting to do is open this up as a high-end retail concept similar to Foxtrot or Berkley’s where people in the neighborhood can walk in, bike in, or drive in, to get beer or wine, snacks, coffee, kind of convenience items, at this particular store,” Ruegg said. “It’s a relatively small site. We’re limited in our floor area and our parking, so those are the uses that we’re aiming toward where the alcohol sales would be a big component in making this site feasible and viable for future business.”
The owner still wants to sell alcohol, and thus the SUP is still needed, but they can alter the request to a retail and food store with liquor sales, Ruegg reiterated.
District 14 Plan Commissioner Melissa Kingston and Councilman Paul Ridley attended the Feb. 6 Oak Lawn Committee meeting. The SUP request is tentatively slated to go before the City Plan Commission for review in March and the City Council in April
Oak Lawn Committee Feedback on 3104 Fairmount
A liquor store is defined as an establishment where 75 percent or more of the sales are alcohol. In order to meet the retail and food store criteria, Masterplan and the property owner will have to rework the concept, Ruegg explained.
Oak Lawn residents expressed concerns about the small parking lot and hours of operation. One resident said he was more concerned with the food store proposal because it sounded like the property was going to become a convenience store.
Resident Sarah Dodd said she was shocked that an SUP would be requested without knowing who the operator would be.
Shelley Potter, president of the Oak Lawn Committee, said the process is working and the developer is open to the neighbors’ feedback.
“The neighbors did speak up … and that is making the developer think differently about the project,” she said. “[Ruegg] has agreed to come back in the future with a more defined plan. I did want the group to know there was thoughtful consideration of how to maximize the benefit to the neighborhood and come up with something that would be beneficial.”
