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| | | | This will be a virtual meeting conducted via GoToMeeting. Should you wish to join this meeting from your phone, tablet, or computer you may go to https://meet.goto.com/594305949. You can also dial in using your phone United States: +1 (224) 501-3412 and Access Code: 594-305-949. | | | |
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| | 2. | | Roll call.
Minutes note: Present (5) - Hinton, Hill, Dodds, Jr., Dotson, Duckworth
Also present:
Ald. Larresa Taylor, 9th Ald. Dist.
Ed Richardson, Dept. of City Development | | | |
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| | 3. | | Review and approval of the previous meeting minutes from February 1, 2023.
Minutes note: Meeting minutes from February 1, 2023 were approved without objection. | | | |
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| | 4. | | Election of a chair and vice-chair.
Minutes note: Mr. Lee said that members entertained opening up chairmanship and vice-chairmanship at the last meeting. The chair's role and vice-chair's role follow Robert's Rule of Order. The chair sets meetings, agendas, and facilitate meetings. The vice-chair acts as chair in the absence of the chair.
Members wanted more time to think about making new nominations, if any, and to hold making new elections. Chair Hinton open to still serve as chair. Vice-chair Hill wants another member to have the opportunity to serve as vice-chair. | | | |
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| | 5. | | Discussion, update(s), review, and/or motion(s) on Granville Development District RFPs, listings, projects, programs, initiatives, events, grants, plans, activities, or other aspects.
Minutes note: A. 6800 W. Brown Deer Rd. food and alcohol establishment for Upscale Galleria, LLC
Appearing:
Ebony Walker, Upscale Galleria, LLC
Ms. Walker presented. She will open up an upscale food restaurant (with a kitchen) and alcohol establishment at 6800 W. Brown Deer Rd. offering 5-star dining, culinary and bartender training, business seminars, private events, couple and business events, full menu, serving soft mature clientele, and having security after 6 p.m.
Members questioned hours of operation, licenses, clientele, training and tuition, age restriction, hookah, opening date, competition with Perkins, and parking.
Ald. Taylor said that she had gained approval for her Class B tavern, food dealer, and entertainment licenses yesterday at her licensing hearing. Entertainment would include instrumental musicians, disc jockey, jukebox, bands, karaoke, poetry readings, comedy acts, and patrons dancing. Training would be outside of public business hours.
Ms. Walker replied. Hours of operation will be 7 days a week 6 am to 12 am and the kitchen closed at 10 pm. Licenses applied for would be Class B tavern, food dealer, and special event permits. The clientele would be older adults. Operations and music would stay away from young crowds. There would be no dancing. Culinary training would be reality-based training, focus on motivating single moms, and having no age limit. She would partner with a fruit artist to teach youths, and she would have sessions with fathers on culinary fundamentals. She was seeking certification from the City for bartender certification training. There would be no underage bartender training. She would want to partner with institutions like MATC to bridge the gap in tuition so as to not have any charge. She is open to reimbursement opportunities. There would be no hookah indoors. Hookah would be allowed only on the outside patio. Friday and Saturday would have an age restriction of 30 years and over after 6 pm. She would be committed to being an upscale 5-star dining facility and having no hookah indoors. Opening is anticipated for the end of the month. She has met with business neighbors. They have a no compete agreement with Perkins and would be supportive of each other. The building owner does security and garbage checks. There was ample parking onsite and around the building. Customer parking was not a concern, but long-term or abandoned parking would be a concern.
Members said for Ms. Walker to follow her stated plan of operation, not to deviate from it, and not to become a hookah bar.
Member Dotson moved to recommend supporting the Class B tavern, food dealer, and entertainment licenses and/or applications at 6800 W. Brown Deer Rd. for Ebony Walker operating as Upscale Galleria, LLC based on the plan of operation presented. Vice-chair seconded. There was no objection.
B. 8651 W. Brown Deer Rd. assembly hall establishment for Clothes to the Rescue/MKE Event Center
Appearing:
Roy Niedfeldt, Clothes to the Rescue/MKE Event Center
James Reilly, MKE Events Security Services LLC
Mr. Richardson said that before the committee for an advisory recommendation was an assembly hall special use permit BOZA application for the leased space at 8651 W. Brown Deer Rd. Stated hours of operation was Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm and Saturday - Sunday 9 am - 12 am. Lease out events to include baptisms, baby showers, church events, and jazz and blues concerts.
Mr. Niedfeldt presented. His business legal name Clothes to the Rescue would be changed. Issues from past failed operations at this location stemmed from a former accountant stealing money. He was a pastor and worked to serve individuals with felony backgrounds. The new business was for an event hall for weddings, church functions, birthday parties for older people, and other functions. They will not rent out events for teen parties but he will have to take in all event applications. Any events to a young crowd will have to undergo an extensive questionnaire. 17-40 years old birthday parties would require security. Concerts would be blues and jazz music and no rap music. Intention is for an upscale event hall. Rowdy events would be ended early. Closing time would be 1 am on the weekends to avoid problems associated with bar closing from Mr. B's Social Club. Weekday closing would be 10 pm or 11 pm on occasion.
Vice-chair Hill was concerned with parking, crowds and other issues that may result from multiple businesses operating at the same times, and past incident with people sitting on cars with weapons outside at the establishment.
Member Dotson said that establishments with teen or youth parties were a problem, for businesses to not deviate from their plan of operation, and she has not experienced any issues while patronizing Mr. B's Social Club during happy hour.
Members inquired about licensing, food, alcohol, hookah, handling of outside issues coinciding with Mr. B's Social Club's operation, and security.
Mr. Niedfeldt replied. Members were invited to tour the facility to address their concerns. The entire strip all has ample parking at 580 stalls. His facility would have 160 stalls. Traffic and parking issues stemmed from the neighboring Mr. B's Social Club and the club's patrons taking up the strip mall stalls. He will have a security firm MKE Events Security Services LLC. Events there would be formal, have no more than 30 young people, and would steer away from teenage parties but open to their consideration. All events would be private. No licensing would be sought or required, to his belief, but he would check. There would be no sale of alcohol and no kitchen onsite. Occupancy was at 150, and most events would be 80-100 people. Disk jockey would be allowed. Hookah would not be allowed. People were to bring their own food and beverages, including alcohol. He took ownership of being opened without the necessary authorization in a past concert event held at the facility, which got out of hand. He misunderstood the process at that time, which he thought the event was allowed under his old business operation. There have not been any police incidents at the establishment. At that past incident, the patron with the weapon was told to leave by security. From this incident, his business would only have blues and jazz. He would be open to shut down the new business should any further issues from events would occur again. Issues at Mr. B's Social Club would not be at happy hour but rather late at night when the club's operations would be dominating the site. There was ample parking between his facility and the club.
Mr. Reilly commented. His firm would be unarmed security for the establishment. He was familiar with the security firm and operations of Mr. B's Social Club and believe that their operations were flawed in blocking off the entrance and causing traffic confusion after closing. His firm has experience with upscale event halls elsewhere and were trained to handle traffic and teens. They had patrol vehicles, has had no issues, would not work any teenage party events, and was not part of the past incident at the facility. The parking, traffic, issues with patrons, and spilling over of event concerns stemmed from Mr. B's Social Club. He would talk to the club's security team to work on coordinating a security plan.
Member Duckworth said that Mr. B's Social Club's operations was impacting the ability of other businesses to open at the strip mall, for the club to come before the committee to address the concerns stated, and that Mr. Niedfeldt's business was not responsible for the club's issues.
Mary Hoehne, Granville Business Improvement District, testified that 160 parking stalls for Mr. Niedfeldt's facility was untrue. She was concerned with events occurring there in the past without the necessary issued permits and with people bringing their own alcohol.
Vice-chair Hill moved to recommend not supporting and opposing the BOZA application for a special use permit to operate as an assembly hall at 8651 W. Brown Deer Rd. for Clothes to the Rescue/MKE Event Center and Roy Niedfeldt based on the location being operational in the past without possessing the necessary permissions to operate; past occurrence of an event at the location during that operational time where patrons were sitting on top of their cars with weapons; possible deviation from the business operations plan based on past occurrence and operations; members being unfamiliar with the establishment and operator; possible exacerbation of public safety issues (unruly patrons, parking, and traffic) stemming from the subject location and from adjacent business operations (primarily a neighboring business Mr. B’s Social Club at 8617 W Brown Deer Rd.); and there not being enough information presented to the committee. Member Dodds, Jr. seconded. There was no objection.
Mr. Richardson said that the Board of Zoning Appeals would take up the application at its June 29th hearing, barring any issues, and would consider the committee's advisory recommendation made today.
C. Neighborhood conditions and concerns
Chair Hinton left the meeting. Vice-chair Hill presiding over the remainder of the meeting.
Member Duckworth was concerned with trash and litter within the YMCA and forest park area on 91st St.
Vice-chair Hill said that two cleanup sessions were planned under the MKE Big Clean project between 91st and 95th Streets.
Member Dotson said that Bellagios at 8665 W. Brown Deer Rd. should appear before the committee due to ongoing concerns at the location related to teenage parties, shootings, and other issues.
Mr. Lee said that attempts to contact Bellagios was unsuccessful and the matter was scheduled at recent past meetings and they did not appear.
Ald. Taylor commented. There have been health inspections, ordered shut downs, and cleanup orders. The owner was not reachable. There was a pending license investigation pending results. The business may close down. She would find out there license renewal period and will update the committee.
D. Other
There was no other discussion. | | | |
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| | 6. | | Discussion, review, and/or motion(s) on the Granville Advisory Committee.
Minutes note: A. Goals, vision, and duties
B. Membership relative to vacancies, appointments, and reappointments
C. Frequency of meetings
D. Other aspects
This item was held and there was no further discussion. | | | |
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| | 8. | | Next steps.
Minutes note: A. Set next meeting date and time
Barring issue, next meeting set for Wednesday, July 5, 2023.
B. Agenda items for the next meeting
To be determined. | | | |
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| | 9. | | Announcements.
Minutes note: Prior to his departure from the meeting, chair Hinton announced a Social Development Commission Board of Commissioners opportunity for anyone interested in becoming a board commissioner. | | | |
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| | 10. | | Adjournment.
Minutes note: Meeting adjourned at 10:40 p.m.
Chris Lee, Staff Assistant
Council Records Section
City Clerk's Office | | | |
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