May 2008 Town Meeting « Josiah Smith Tavern & Old Library Project

May 2008 Town Meeting

At the Weston, MA Town Meeting on May 14, 2008 three members of the Josiah Smith Tavern & Old Library Committee – Andy Marvel, Peter Nichols and Carol Snow – together with consultants, Kaffee Kang and Tom Wirth, presented the plans related to Warrant Article #21, “Appropriate for Historic Resources – Josiah Smith Tavern & Old Library Design Fees.” The town approved the warrant article with a majority vote of 255 “yes” and 170 “no” votes.

Warrant Article #22, “Liquor License – Josiah Smith Tavern,” requesting permission to apply for a site-specific liquor license for the tavern restaurant was also presented at May’s Town Meeting and approved by a majority vote of 238 “yes” and 124 “no” votes.

A transcript of the committee’s presentation pertaining to Warrant Article #21, together with schematics from the building and landscape architects, follow:

Andy Marvel, Committee Chair

As a member of the Josiah Smith Tavern & Old Library Committee, I was asked to lead off this presentation tonight and walk you through the chronology of our research regarding the proposed active reuse of the 1757 Josiah Smith Tavern and the 1900 Old Library. What we are requesting under this warrant article is $750,000 of CPA funds for architectural plans and specifications for the restoration and reuse of these two buildings. Approving these funds will simply allow us, with your help to continue working on this plan. Before I get into the details however, I wanted to share a quick personal story with you to shed some light on why I got involved with this vision.

Almost 25 years ago my now wife and I were returning from the vineyard where we had just become engaged. Beanie lived in Concord at the time and to avoid 128 traffic we cut up through Weston. As we got to the corner of School St and Old Boston Road, right across from the tavern and Old library, we ran into Marty Campbell who was an old family friend of my wife’s and a real estate agent in town. We gave her the news and being a good broker she asked us where we thought we might end up living. Well, as we looked around at the beautiful town green sweeping across to the town hall, First Parish Church on one side and behind us a handsome brick library and a classic, though run down New England tavern with barn, we thought, maybe we should think about Weston. Marty showed us five houses we fell in love with the first one we saw and only recently moved from that house after more than 20 years.

I tell you this to point out that in all this time, 25 years, virtually nothing has changed with those buildings - two buildings which were a part of what guided our decision to move to this wonderful town. So with the exception of the recent renovations which our committee initiated a year or so ago, (under budget I might add) nothing has changed and that’s really a shame.

So that raises the question, why? Why have these two classic buildings in the most prominent location in Weston been ignored for all this time? The answer is, they’ve had no purpose and just like a person, without a purpose, you slowly die away. Well, that’s what we’re here to talk to you about tonight. We believe that we have a plan, an exciting plan to make both of these buildings viable and active again and now I’d like to get into the details with you.

Since 2001 the Josiah Smith Tavern and Old library Committee has sought to find a use for these two buildings. We looked into every idea which we could think of or that others suggested to us. For the old library there were condominiums, law offices, town houses, a private club, retail stores, a restaurant and for the JST there were a law offices, private residence, a b&b, office space, you name it, we studied it.

Project Objectives

Our vision for these two important buildings is three-fold:

First, to give the buildings a purpose, revitalize them and bring them back to life, making them an integral part of the community again.
Find a use which will keep them accessible to the town as well as creating an opportunity for us to reconnect as a community.
Find a use which can generate some income which could be used to cover the ongoing maintenance costs of the buildings. Up until now they have been a financial drain on the town and I for one am tired of throwing money at two abandoned buildings.

Recommended Use

After all this research and time, the committee now has a recommendation that realizes our three objectives. Ironically, we believe that the best use for the Josiah Smith Tavern would be as ….a Tavern! This is a use which will respect the historic character of the building, while making it financially accessible and welcoming to all. It would be a combined restaurant and function facility and would require a full liquor license.

In addition to that, we’re proposing that the Women’s Community league, currently housed in the barn of the JST, be relocated to the first floor of the Old Library. On the lower level of the library, we would locate the Weston History Center, a facility which would house the Weston Historical Commission, Historical Society as well as a town archive storage facility and public information center. It should be noted that these functions all currently reside in the JST, despite no water in the Tavern, low heat and minimal electricity. The Old Library is the perfect home for these organizations.

Details of the Plan

There are seven points which I’d like to review with you tonight. After my overview, Peter Nichols who is a member of the JST OL committee will explain the financial side of the project. You will then get a tour of the preliminary restaurant/tavern and old library plans from our architect, followed by a presentation of the schematic plan for the landscaping from our landscape architect. Now for the details:

1. Restaurant’s Financial Viability: Our first order of business was to determine whether a restaurant/tavern would be financially viable for this location. In 2006 we hired restaurant consultant Michael Staub, who has assisted in the establishment of many well-known restaurants. We asked him to do a financial analysis for us to determine if this plan would make financial sense. His conclusion was that the combination of location and the historic nature of the JST would make this a highly sought after location for a restaurant, drawing many potential restaurateurs. It should be noted that we have met with several well known restaurateurs from within Weston who are very enthusiastic about the project as well as its potential success.

2. Alcohol: The restaurant will need a full liquor license in order to be financially viable. A restaurant of this size would be at a severe disadvantage without it, not to mention the negative affect it would have on drawing a qualified restaurateur. Restaurants make 20 to 30% of their profit from the sale of alcohol. Keep in mind that what we envision is a small tavern/bar at the entry where drinks will only be served to those who are being served food in the tavern or dining areas.

What we’re proposing for this project is a site specific liquor license. It will allow for alcohol to be served at this location, and this location only. The lease with the restaurateur will be written in such a way as to assure that if the restaurant were to fail, the liquor license will remain in the possession of the town. It cannot go to another location nor can it be transferred to a new owner without the towns consent.

3. Architect: Once we were confident that a restaurant plan could work based on economics, we put out a request for proposal for an architect and ended up selecting Kaffee Kang of Kang and Associates from Sudbury. Kaffee has extensive experience in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, particularly municipal facilities. She will give you a tour through the proposed tavern design in just a moment. With her help we have been able to determine an approximate seat count which consists of approximately 130 seats in the restaurant and 70 in the function area. She’s also looked into potential structural, ADA compliance issues, mechanical system problems and so on.

In addition to these functional issues, it should be noted that the JST is under a comprehensive historic deed restriction held by Historic New England. This restriction prohibits us from making any changes to the building both on the interior and exterior without their approval. We’ve been in close contact with them and at this point, have a signed letter from them, approving the plans as currently drawn.

4. Septic System and Tavernside Playground: We knew that this was going to be a bid issue. Metrowest Engineering has done a study for us laying out, our potential options for locating the septic system. Based on this study, we concluded that a single system needed to be designed with the capacity to handle both the JST and the Old Library. It so happened that one of the locations we felt might be able to handle the system considering the minimal available space around the tavern and library, is where the Tavernside Playground is currently located. After having completed the necessary testing, it was determined that in fact, the playground site is a perfect location for this system with 13’ of sand and gravel below it. It is also the only option on the site.

Obviously the big question which then comes to mind is; where we will put the playground. There is a parcel of land owned by the town to the left of town hall called Lamson Park. We are recommending the playground be relocated to this location. The benefits include a larger site with an open area for older children to run around on with an open lawn and no more fears of kids being at risk, getting out of cars onto the busy Old Boston Post Road. It’s also important to note that the distance to Brueggers is almost identical.

5. Parking: According to the zoning by laws, we will need 1 parking space for every 4 seats in the restaurant and 2 parking spots for every 3 employees. Therefore, in order to satisfy the towns zoning rules, we will need approximately 100 regular parking spaces for the old library and the JST combined. We will be able to fit 11 spots behind the old library as they currently exist and we will therefore need to create roughly 89 spots somewhere else on site if we were to meet current zoning.

So, where do we put the parking? It turns out that the septic system which has been recommended to us by Metrowest Engineering is actually rated to handle vehicle traffic and parking. As a result, we are proposing that roughly 45 parking spots be located in this location. This is below what is required by zoning but we are hoping to work with the town in order to minimize the on site parking According to our traffic consultant’s study, there are over 120 on-street parking spaces within a 10 minute walk of the JST and over 100 within a 5 minute walk on a typical weekend evening. This does not count the private lots such as Omni, St Julia’s or the First Parish Church. The committee also will be recommending that the restaurant operator use valet parking and provide parking for employee’s offsite.

6. Traffic: In looking at the traffic impact on Weston Center we figured, who better to look at this situation than the engineer who is studying the Broken Stone project, Bob Machaud. He analyzed traffic patterns through and around Weston center at various times of the day. What his study points out is that in fact, a restaurant facility will have very little impact on Weston center. It turns out not surprisingly, that the peak traffic times in Weston are in the early morning and at the end of the day, winding down around 6:30. These times are in fact, the exact opposite times when a restaurant would be most active. On average when the restaurant is at peak operation, the number of additional cars entering Weston Center will be about 30 cars per hour. That’s one car every two minutes. Compared to the number of cars which are typically passing through Weston Center, Machaud says, we won’t even notice it.

7. Financial: I’m going to let Peter Nichols get into more detail regarding the financial side of this project but I’d like to emphasis one point. The funding for this project is coming from the Community Preservation Fund. As such, there will be no impact on the current tax rate. As Steve Ober has explained, the Weston CPA fund has the capacity to fund both the design and the projected construction phase of the project even if the state does not continue matching town funds on a 100% basis.

Conclusion

We have been asked: Why should the town be going into the restaurant business? Our conclusion is that in order to bring these two beautiful and historic treasures back to life once again in our town center, we need to give them a purpose which allows the public access to them and creates something which will benefit Weston in the long run. This will be a new town gathering place where you can grab a bite to eat and catch up with your neighbor or have dinner after a long day on the soccer fields. Do some shopping in town and then have lunch on the JST’s rear patio or go to the Weston History Center with your kids and delve into our towns rich historical background. We’re confident that with your help, we can do this, and bring this important corner of town back to life. I don’t want to see another 25 years go by before we step up and help these two wonderful buildings. We can do this!