DERBY — The Derby Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to reject a zone-text change that would have helped a thriving beer garden on Sodom Lane.
Tuesday’s 6 – 0 vote effectively prevents The Hops Co. from making major changes to the 4‑acre property.
While business has been booming since the place opened in 2015, neighbors have complained for months about cars clogging the surrounding residential streets. Noise and litter are also issues, they said.
While owner Umberto Morale and his lawyer Dominick Thomas said neighbors complaints have been overblown, they were ready to submit a site plan to the Derby P&Z that would have seen old buildings torn down, a new building put up in the rear of the property, and a much-expanded parking area.
However, the property is a “pre-existing nonconforming use,” also known as “grandfathered.”
The designation usually means the use (beer garden and wedding venue) doesn’t fit into the current zoning (residential). The designation also means — no major changes.
So, as a way to overcome that hurdle, Thomas asked the Derby P&Z to insert a “Derby Development District” into the city’s regulations.
Thomas said the district would give some wiggle room to not just The Hops Co., but to other properties that are grandfathered or exist in transition zones from commercial to residential.
If the Derby P&Z had approved the “development district,” it would have allowed The Hops Co. to submit a specific site plan to Derby for review. Site plan applications are the process by which a commission goes over the nitty-gritty of a development plan — everything from parking to the type of landscaping.
But neighbors feared any change would result in more patrons coming to the business, making a bad situation worse — though the owner told The Valley Indy his goal wasn’t to attract even more people.
Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan and Charles Sampson, president of the Board of Aldermen, also publicly opposed the “development district.”
On Tuesday, members of the commission said they could not approve the “Derby Development District” because they weren’t sure what impact it would have on similar properties in Derby.
The proposal was “way too broad in nature,” Derby P&Z chairman Ted Estwan said during the meeting.
Thomas met with the commission’s lawyer just prior to the start of Tuesday’s meeting, but was not present when the commission voted to reject the zone change. The Valley Indy reached out to Thomas through email after meeting.
He pointed out The Hops Co. (also known as THC) has a petition circulating with signatures from hundreds of supporters.
“The petition in support of THC, the most successful business in Derby that wants to be able to address the parking issue and improve the property, is now well over 300 Derby residents with 50+ in the area of THC,” Thomas said. “I guess those constituents don’t count. Hopefully the commission will propose its own development district.”
The commission’s move has no impact on what happens to The Hops Co. today. The business will continue to operate as is.
Presumably that means neighbors will continue to have issues with the place.
“THC will continue to prosper and have the events without the 55 additional spaces under the site plan it would have proposed,” Thomas said. “Success is not an increase of the nonconforming use. My client’s efforts to resolve issues has been rejected. There should be no more complaints about parking.”
Estwan said during the meeting that the commission and its consultants could research and write a development district on their own terms — one that could theoretically enable Hops to come back with a site plan.
After the meeting Estwan said there are no immediate plans to come up with a new development district, but it’s something the commission could take up next year.
