Palmer planners deny downtown BBQ parking variance on two 3-3 ties

The owner of a barbecue restaurant planned for downtown Palmer has until Wednesday to appeal the city's denial of the parking variance he sought, after the Planning and Zoning Commission split 3-3 on two required findings Oct. 15.

Troy Vincent wants to open Bear Naked BBQ at 579 S. Alaska St., a 1949 building that housed Palmer Drug Store and later Just Sew, from 1998 to 2023, before sitting empty. The lot is under a tenth of an acre and has three parking spaces. City staff estimated that a store or a 50-seat restaurant there would need about 10, though it said those figures hadn't been verified. The variance would have exempted it from downtown Palmer's off-street parking rule.

A variance has to meet six findings under city code. On two of them, whether the parking rule would deny Vincent rights other property owners in the district have and whether a variance would harm nearby property or the public welfare, Commissioners Laffey, Puryear and Pierren voted no. The 3-3 ties sank the request without a final vote.

City staff had recommended approving it with conditions, including a 50-seat cap, and found no evidence it would harm nearby property or the public.

In September, nearly a dozen business owners and residents testified against the variance, and the commission, with three members absent, put off the decision. Vincent didn't attend the October meeting. In a letter, he said he plans about 40 seats and to serve only beer and wine, and that he had counted about 698 public and shared parking spaces within 600 feet. The letter said the three businesses that testified against him in September all sell food, alcohol or both. "Competition between businesses should be decided by customers, not by a parking variance," he wrote.

Six people testified against the variance in October, including Michelle Kincaid, who owns several neighboring properties, and Sherman Leifer of the Palmer Bar. "If it's a borderline, you should go, no, you don't make it worse by saying yes," Leifer said. Kincaid argued that a 15-seat restaurant could open there without a variance.

Two residents spoke in favor, and former commission chair Dan Lucas wrote that without the variance, the property could "remain vacant for the foreseeable future."