[Chat] Peabody Heights Brewery

[Linda Forlifer]

Message from Jo Ann Robinson ( jooiman at msn.com<mailto:jooiman at msn.com> ):

Dear Neighbors,

RESIST THE BEGINNINGS  is a rule that has served me well from when  it was impressed on me as a teenager to this present day.   I believe that it is time to apply it  to the issue of whether or not our community supports  a  liquor license and zoning change for Peabody Heights Brewery, which would  permit retail sales of beer,   numerous "events" and live entertainment at Barclay and 30th Streets.

At the beginning of our relationship with the brewery, the owners and AIA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding which included a provision that there would be no retail sales on the premises (signed by brewery owner Hollis Albert on 12/2/2011).    A brief couple of years later we face a new law permitting breweries to  sell their wares on the premises, and our Peabody Heights neighbors are asking  us to support their application for a license under the new law, rendering the first MOU irrelevant.

At the beginning of the owners' discussions with community residents  (at a meeting in late August) about this new license application the owners proposed certain hours of operation and a certain number of special events.     Already, they have amended the proposal presented in August  to include longer hours of operation and more special events - totaling, now some 50+ events yearly, in addition to those during regular retail hours (5-9 Mon - Fri, 11-9 Sat).     Their proposal Includes live entertainment for such events.

In the beginning I  welcomed the brewery's taking up residence in a vacant building.    I saw no problem with the occasional weekend events held there; I attended and enjoyed two of them.   I made a point of buying Raven and Poe beers at regular liquor stores.   I assumed our tolerant and quirky neighborhood could accommodate a brewery.

I do not believe we should accommodate a bar, for the following reasons:


*        Beer being drunk on the premises, drinkers coming and going, and growlers being carried onto the streets are activities that do not mix well with the coming and going of children and youth.

Barclay School is right across the street.   The latest proposed hours for liquor sales  overlap with the school's after- care program and  evening programs scheduled during the school year.

                             When the former Barclay School principal, Gertrude Williams, learned of the
                             proposed bar she declared, "they would never think of trying to sell liquor
                             across the street from Roland Park public school or Mt. Washington. "   To the
                             best of my knowledge, no one in AIA has a child at Barclay and, until the meeting
for Oct. 15 was set (rather late in the process), no one has made a point of informing parents of Barclay students.

The 29th Street Community Center is right around the corner.   Its program hours will overlap even more than the school's with the liquor sales.



*        The residential  streets in the vicinity of the brewery are not constructed to absorb the foot traffic, car traffic, parking and noise of 50+ events a year with live entertainment, drawing crowds of up to 300+ people.


Brewery owners have proposed valet parking in lots several blocks from
the site.    This will not prevent patrons from taking all available street parking,
                              leaving the valet system as a last resort.

                              As our weekly crime tally indicates, muggings and car vandalism and larceny are more
                              frequent in this area than we wish.    Those who park any distance from  the
                              brewery, whether valets or customers, will be possible targets of these too-common
                              crimes.


*        Once word gets out that the brewery has a bar and growlers , Peabody Heights will become a magnet for our college student neighbors, a development that will enhance neither the peace of the neighborhood nor the safety of the students.


*        We may hope that a new MOU can be crafted that will somehow address the above concerns

and issues that others may raise, but our experience with the brewery to date shows that such

agreements have no real force.   It  is likely that the current owners will develop

new imperatives for their enterprise that  go beyond the latest MOU, and we also need to

consider the possibility of the business changing hands.  In that case,  we cannot expect that that  new owners will adopt whatever limits on beer- sale hours, events and entertainment we thought we had secured.


I hope that these and other concerns will be examined fully at the meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the 29th Street Community Center on October 15th.  And I urge us to think carefully before entering into this newest beginning requested by Peabody Heights Brewery.

Jo Ann Robinson

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