The front facade of Chardon Tavern — known locally as the “Bev” — will soon include an outdoor dining area and wheelchair-accessible ramp into the building, after Chardon Planning Commission approved a request from the owners to allow expansion into what was previously a front parking lot.
The front facade of Chardon Tavern — known locally as the “Bev” — will soon include an outdoor dining area and wheelchair-accessible ramp into the building, after Chardon Planning Commission approved a request from the owners to allow expansion into what was previously a front parking lot.
During the Oct. 19 planning meeting, Community Development Administrator Steve Yaney said the building’s two existing accessible parking stalls will remain in the front of the building, at 405 Water St., because there is no entrance accessible to wheelchairs from the rear parking lot.
Yaney said the new outdoor dining area will project 10 feet out from the front of the building, but one and a half feet of that space is in the public right-of-way. Chardon City Council, which has sole authority to allow encroachment of the right-of-way, approved it at their Oct. 14 meeting.
However, the building was still out of alignment with the city’s traditional commercial district zoning, which requires a 30-foot frontyard setback. Planning commission members voted to reduce that setback to zero feet, allowing the project to move forward.
Dean Peska, who sits on the commission, said he is excited to see the changes made by owners Richard and Amie Willner and Martin and Charlene Flynn.
It will be nice to see new landscaping in the front, he said, as well as outdoor dining.
“And the front looks like the old style saloon,” Peska said. “Like ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Wild, Wild West.’ Or at least how they depict it on TV.”
Yaney said the project is promoting what the city has been trying to accomplish over the last couple of years through updates to its zoning code. The improvements to the front of the building will help curb appeal both for the tavern and its neighbors, where currently there is a sheet of asphalt and a curb, he added.
“Pulling stuff more to the road, giving more of a street presence, having more vibrancy with outdoor dining areas, landscaping,” he said. “This is going to start softening up all of that area through there and this’ll tie in nicely with the project that just finished up next door for NDS Orthodontics.”
City Council member Chris Grau, who sits on the commission, ended the meeting with a note of gratitude.
“Thank you folks for what you’re doing down there,” Grau said. “That is going to be a welcome sight — and you do a great job inside, too.”
“We appreciate it, thank you,” Richard Willner responded. “We appreciate all your support.”
Commission members Lene Hill, Andy Blackley and Mary Jo Stark were absent from the meeting.
