Uptown Planners to review proposed extension of sidewalk caf\u00e9, residents\u2019 concerns<\/p>\n
By Lee Schoenbart |<\/strong> Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n After receiving a letter from the City of San Diego regarding an assessment of a local caf\u00e9\u2019s proposal to create a sidewalk patio extending onto University Avenue, some Uptown residents and businesses are concerned.<\/p>\n The proposal, which would extend the Gossip Grill\u2019s front sidewalk area to the edge of its property line, is particularly distressing residents of Uptown Court condominiums, on the east side of Normal Street, across from the restaurant, said Antoine Hanna, an Uptown Court board member. \u201cThe main concern that people have in this building is the late night noise, because [it] travels into the area and into the building above,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir concern is noise after 10 p.m.\u201d Hanna, who is also the owner of Salon Antoine, at 3717 Normal St., noted, however, that his own apprehension about the proposed extension is less with noise than with parking.<\/p>\n \u201cThe issue here,\u2026for me, is the parking after 5 p.m. I\u2019ve been here for 11 years and never had any problems,\u201d said Hanna, whose business stays open until 8 p.m. \u201cNow, after 5 p.m. we do have a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanna also said that drunken patrons from Gossip Grill leave a mess in the parking lot beside his salon.<\/p>\n \u201cI know they\u2019re trying very hard, and they send somebody to walk around to clean around the parking. But still there\u2019s a lot of residue in the morning on the street next to the salon, with trash and people throwing up and stuff like that,\u201d Hanna said.<\/p>\n However, Leo Wilson, chair of Uptown Planners, said sidewalk caf\u00e9s increase the pedestrian feel of the neighborhood. That\u2019s part of living in a community that\u2019s walkable. The controversy has [usually] \u201cThe city requires a six-foot clearance; however, there can be an application for deviation from that \u2026if there\u2019s a finding that it won\u2019t result in congestion,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n Shaw, who also owns Urban Mo\u2019s and Baja Betty\u2019s, said Gossip Grill\u2019s proposal is in compliance with the requirements, and Wilson noted that Hanna\u2019s concerns are more of a code enforcement issue than an issue related to the permit process. Wilson added, however, that Uptown Planners listens to all public comment regardless of its nature and attempts to address any issues that arise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve looked at several outdoor caf\u00e9s, and I think the board has approved all of them\u2026because [they]\u2026help the urban experience. But you\u2019re going to be concerned if there\u2019s too much noise for neighbors, and so there might be some recommendations to mitigate [disturbances].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou could argue that an outdoor caf\u00e9 might be noisy, which then, you would talk about hours of operation. But as far as having an outdoor caf\u00e9, I think the Uptown community plan calls for these to be encouraged as part of the urban experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Hanna said he expects Uptown Court residents to oppose the proposal when it comes before Uptown Planners.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of complaints. There are letters being sent [to the city],\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you now, there\u2019s going to be some letters regarding the noise about the update at Gossip Grill.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson said the earliest Gossip Grill\u2019s proposal and community reaction to it will make it onto the Uptown Planner\u2019s calendar is October.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uptown Planners to review proposed extension of sidewalk caf\u00e9, residents\u2019 concerns By Lee Schoenbart | SDUN Reporter After receiving a letter from the City of San Diego regarding an assessment of a local caf\u00e9\u2019s proposal to create a sidewalk patio extending onto University Avenue, some Uptown residents and businesses are concerned. The proposal, which would […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Much chatter about Gossip Grill","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbeen leaving enough sidewalk that people can walk on without having to go through an obstacle.<\/p>\n