STUART \u2013 The City Commission voted unanimously Oct. 13 to grant a continuance to the owners of a handful of Spice & Tea Exchange franchises for a conditional use exception to their application to open a new store in Downtown Stuart until Nov. 10 but still heard comments from a couple of public speakers on the idea of allowing chain operations downtown.<\/p>\n
Just a week prior, Stuart\u2019s Community Redevelopment Board had voted 4-2 to recommend the Commission deny the application. Chairman Mark Brechbill led the charge on that opposition, insisting he was primarily concerned with how such formula businesses \u2013 also known as chain operations \u2013 would impact the mom-and-pop business owners already in existence.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy comments at this point have nothing to do with your place,\u201d he told Spice & Tea Exchange franchise owners Glenn and Kimberly Gordon on Oct. 7. \u201cIt actually all has to do with protecting our local businesses. That\u2019s what the formula business district is about. We\u2019ve got some vacancies on the street and the prices are high, and our local businesses are having a hard time paying those prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Development Director Jodi Kugler informed him that staff did not take building lease rates into consideration when considering the major urban code conditional use exception for a particular franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t take into account the rent or the cost of the product,\u201d she said that night. \u201cWe do have to look at the character, the type of sales they make [and] the ambiance. You can actually have 1,500 square feet [with] the formula based business; this business is actually limiting themselves to 1,300 square feet. We still want to make sure they stay quaint and local and that meets the character of the neighborhood, [so] we can limit them from expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there was no staff presentation the next week when City Attorney Lee Baggett read the resolution into the record for the Gordons\u2019 continuance request, Planner Mechelle Arbuzow did provide CRB members a definition of formula businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn accordance with the City of Stuart\u2019s Land Development Code, a formula business is a retail business establishment that has six or more similar establishments located elsewhere,\u201d she explained Oct. 7. The Spice & Tea Exchange satisfies four criteria as a formula business: They share trade name and logos; merchandise is sold; and they have common advertising and similar signage. A formula business requires approval by a major urban code exception, Community Redevelopment Board consideration and final action before the City Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n
During that public hearing, several members of the public spoke out both for and against the city granting the couple the special exception use. Even though the City Commission did not reopen the hearing on Oct. 13 after its members unanimously agreed to table the resolution, Mayor Campbell Rich did invite the public to speak. CRB Member Will Laughlin, who cast one of the two opposing votes to the denial the previous week, was the first to approach the podium. Laughlin described how own initial opposition had been swayed by the Gordon\u2019s presentation during the CRB hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a lot of positives,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are potential mentors. Once you see the Gordons and how they operate, you can tell very quickly that they are good people and want to hire a local person to act as their manager. This manager will learn how to run a small business. They\u2019ve been in business for 12 years, [and] this will be their fourth operation. When I spoke to corporate, they knew exactly who these people were and said glowing things about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The applicant\u2019s contracted Landscape Architect Marcella Camblor, who\u2019d provided a separate presentation to the CRB, now addressed the Commission. She explained that her clients were not in attendance because they didn\u2019t realize their request for continuance required a separate hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy firm was helping the Gordons navigate the regulatory process,\u201d she said. \u201cThey started the application themselves, but then it became a major code conditional use, so it wasn\u2019t just opening a store. Part of the reason for moving this [is] I think you\u2019re going to see overwhelming support from the downtown businesses. I think when you hear from them [the Gordons] as the [CRB] board member said, you will be very impressed with their business.\u2019<\/p>\n
CRB Chairman Brechbill was the last to speak that night, describing the Gordon\u2019s request as \u201ca tough issue.\u201d During his own board\u2019s hearing, he\u2019d even questioned the legality of the city\u2019s land development regulations concerning formula businesses and continued that train of thought before city commissioners. Now he urged them to watch his advisory board\u2019s meeting video.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CRB did review this very, very well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had people work really hard on it. Will made some great points, others made some great points, so all I ask is that you guys see what happened at that level, I think they did a really good job of evaluating it. I\u2019m asking you take a look at whether or not this code will function the way it\u2019s written \u2013 we haven\u2019t had anybody denied in 10 years. Take a look at what the CRB did and also take a look at that formula business language to see if it\u2019s even defensible going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City Commission then voted unanimously to continue the Gordons\u2019 public hearing on Nov. 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART \u2013 The City Commission voted unanimously Oct. 13 to grant a continuance to the owners of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[326,171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-12646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-martin","9":"tag-port-st-lucie","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","11":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}