Despite sponsoring legislation to prohibit or severely limit the establishment and operations of new bars in residential districts city-wide, and despite unified opposition by a coalition of neighborhood associations that all happen to include his constituents, Councilman Jay Batt has bent over backwards to ensure that his friend and supporter David Melius can open a new super-sized Bruno's bar on Maple Street. Mr. Batt even told one uptown resident that he would see that "his friend got his bar" in spite of neighborhood objections.

No matter how one feels about bars or other businesses in residential neighborhoods, the fact remains that THIS bar would never have been allowed were it not for the owner's relationship with Jay Batt.

Bruno's Bar Chronology...
This sad chronicle details how Jay Batt defied an entire neighborhood to help his friend David Melius build his large bar on Maple Street, and worked tirelessly to reduce the parking requirement, after saying he opposed the bar because it lacked sufficient parking...

Jay Batt then did an about-face and approved the bar, cutting the 45 off-site parking spaces recommended by the City Planning Commission (CPC) to 21. A year later, when it was clear that Bruno’s didn’t even have the 21 spaces, Batt, without notifying the neighborhood, introduced an "administrative amendment" aimed at reducing the number of required parking spaces from the 21 to as few as 11 off-site spaces. This new tactic also involved leasing public sidewalks to Bruno’s for parking, and allowing cars to back into the street, a proposal the Planning Commission staff characterized as "unsafe." After the neighborhood made strenuous objections before the CPC, Batt withdrew the amendment. Though the matter will apparently not be considered again until after the election, Batt has refused to guarantee he will not reintroduce the proposal to void the original parking project at a later date (i.e., after the election). Thus, Batt, who originally admitted that the project would require a "large" parking lot, hijacked the process to attempt to have the project approved with as few as eleven spaces, some of those on city sidewalks.

11/25/03 1st CPC Hearing. Bruno’s proposed a three-story, 9,700-square-foot building, with a residence for owner Melius on the third floor. The CPC rejected the proposal by a 6-to-1 vote. The next step would be the City Council.

12/31/03 Batt Opposes Bar: Batt said he was worried primarily about a lack of off-street parking: "after much evaluation and consideration . . . [the bar] is not a viable option for that location." "Whatever he may do, I will ask my colleagues to oppose it."

1/9/04 Bruno’s withdraws proposal. Batt’s stated position shifts, and he says he would not rule out supporting a possible future request for a smaller bar at the site, if a large off-street parking lot was provided.

4/04 Bruno’s pushes a revised project, which is essentially the same as the original plan without the 3rd floor residence, and announces contracts for 22 off-site parking spaces.

5/04 Batt sponsors a moratorium new ABO’s on Oak and parts of Carrollton. Note: Maple Street, where his friend Melius wanted to build a bar, was not included.

6/04 2nd CPC Hearing. City Planning Commission approves Bruno’s plan with numerous provisos attempting to protect the neighborhood, but requires 45 off-street parking spaces, including 10 on-site and the rest within 300 feet.

8/04 Council approves bar at Batt’s urging. Though the CPC had required that the bar close by midnight, under Batt’s ordinance, the bar can stay open until 3:30 a.m. Though the CPC originally required 45 spaces, Batt’s ordinance reduced that to 12 spaces within a block and 9 within two blocks. (Note that this just happened to coincide with the number of spaces Bruno’s claimed it had.) Under Batt’s ordinance, no spaces were required on site, leaving more room for the bar.

7/14/05 Batt introduces an "administrative amendment" asking the CPC to consider changing the parking requirement. He does not alert the neighborhood to this amendment.

8/29/05 Hurricane Katrina strikes.

12/14/05 Bruno’s meets with the Planning Advisory Council and, for the first time, presents the plans for the two parking lots. On one of the lots, where 12 spaces are proposed, eight of the spaces extend over the public sidewalk. Bruno’s tells the PAC it wants to lease the sidewalk from the City for parking. (See parking diagrams.)

1/18/06 City Planning Staff recommends denial of Batt’s administrative amendment.
–Staff finds that one of two lots proposed for parking has only 4 spaces that do not extend onto sidewalk. It notes other problems, such as the fact that other businesses are already using these spots.
–Staff finds that other proposed lot is an "unsafe arrangement," as the cars will have to back into the street. Though Bruno’s claimed the lot had 8 spaces, lot owner says it has only 7.
--Bruno’s is now in a predicament. In order to get an occupancy license for the bar that was already under construction, he would have to provide the 21 parking spaces, and, though he had announced 2 years before that he had the contracts, the staff found only 11 legal spaces on the contracted lots.

1/24/06 3rd City Planning Commission Meeting. Numerous neighbors object to any further reduction in the parking requirement. The commission could not rule because it lacked a quorum.

2/06 Batt withdraws amendment before the CPC can rule on it. Obviously, realizing that the amendment was headed for defeat by the CPC, and not wanting to have to help his friend by overruling the CPC at election time, Batt manipulates the process to save face and snatch the victory from the neighborhood. Batt refuses to guarantee he won’t reintroduce the amendment again.

Read more about the lengths to which Batt is willing to cut corners for Bruno's here on the Maple Area Residents neighborhood association site.