BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council did not approve a mixed-use building near the viaduct and questioned limits on video lottery licenses during last Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilor Joey Collins was absent.
Ordinance 21-030
Ordinance 21-030 pertained to an application for a conditional-use permit for a mixed business/residential use building in a Business B-3 Heavy District on 530 First St. S. and 110 Sixth Ave. S. by Grant Leffelbein and Ted Elverson, operating under the name Granted Properties, LLC.
The building would have had seven contractor’s shops and/or personal storage with four second-floor two-bedroom apartments, according to an attachment to the agenda.
Mike Struck, director of Community Development, explained that the Planning Commission approved it 4-2, but the Development Review Team did not support the request, and staff was recommending denial “based upon the compatibility of the intensity of these types of uses.”
Struck said B-3 is a very heavy business district, very similar to the industrial districts.
“We would not allow residential housing, living in the I-1 industrial district,” Struck said.
The difference between the mixed-use buildings downtown on Main Avenue and on Sixth Street and this project would be the types of businesses, Struck said.
“Those types of uses are public uses, in that they’re public assembly-type uses, with office areas, restaurants, drinking establishments, retail operations, so there’s a general assumption that when you offer spaces available to the public to frequent, that there’s certain standards that are upheld and certain inspections that are done outside of what the city would do,” Struck said, mentioning health inspectors.
With contractor shops and storage units, there are not inspections, “so you do not know for certain what types of uses or materials will be stored inside,” Struck said.
Leffelbein and Elverson stood before the council.
Leffelbein said the project would bring an updated, efficient and aesthetic structure “to an area of town in need of all three.”
“It’s an opportunity for affordable housing near downtown,” Leffelbein said. “It’s a great location for contractor and personal shops.
“This building is proposed to be sprinkled with the two-hour firewall, separating the apartments from the shops. We’ve included covenants for concerns of haz-mat, exterior storage and noise concerns,” Leffelbein said, then read the covenants.
He said SDSU OSHA Extension was willing to help them maintain compliance.
“We have every reason to enforce all of these covenants; if we do not, … we would not be able to rent the units above,” Leffelbein said.
He said they work across the street, “so we want this area of town to look nice; we want this to be a clean area of town that people want to visit.”
Mayor Ope Niemeyer called for a motion, which was made by Councilor Nick Wendell, but the motion did not get a second, so it failed.
Alcohol/video lottery licenses
The council approved several alcohol licenses or transfers of licenses at Tuesday’s meeting. One of them was a malt license for Deuces Casino at 223 Sixth St., owners Bryant Soberg and Kirby Muilenburg. There was also a video lottery license for Deuces Casino, which was also approved by the council.
Deuces Casino already has three video lottery suites, each have 10 machines. These licenses pertain to a fourth suite and are pending occupancy permit issuance and final inspection per the Community Development Department, according to a memo by City Clerk Bonnie Foster, who added there was construction that needed to take place.
The applications for both licenses were to be forwarded to the State Department of Revenue for final action and issuance of the license and would be subject to an annual review process, according to Foster’s memo.
Councilor Leah Brink asked if four suites would be the maximum allowed at the business.
“There’d be no way to carve out another fifth one?” Brink said.
“It depends on how creative they want to be,” Foster answered, adding it does meet state law requirements for four suites. If they request a fifth suite, the city would review it, she said.
Brink asked if there was a physical footprint required for each of those bays, and Foster said no, there wasn’t.
Niemeyer noted there was an east entrance and a separate entrance into the suite and asked if customers would have to go to another suite to get a beverage.
“No, each individual suite would have their own serving sales alcohol location,” Foster said.
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
