1/8/2010 6:00:00 AM Wildcat Lanes gets city OK to build 'outdoor' smoking room
A 225-foot addition planned for Wildcat Lanes (middle, in brown) features large windows on two sides that would enable it to not be considered “enclosed” when the statewide smoking ban goes into effect July 5.
The city Plan Commission gave approval Monday for Verona's first smoking room.
While the building addition at Wildcat Lanes wasn't labeled as such in the staff report and certainly doesn't have to be used that way, its purpose was obvious by the design and timing of the request. The bowling alley's general manager, Andy Poole, confirmed it midway through the discussion with a terse, uncomfortable, "yes," after commissioner Patrick Lytle could no longer hold in his curiosity.
"Cool," Lytle said after acknowledging that his question wasn't really relevant to the discussion.
City planning director Bruce Sylvester said later that he intentionally avoided bringing up the purpose of the addition because it wasn't "germane" to the Plan Commission's charge, which has more concern with aesthetics and consistency than enforcement of the state smoking ban. The state ban will supersede Verona's prohibition smoking in food- or drink-serving areas July 5, and it contains a rather loose definition of what constitutes an outdoor patio.
True to form, the commission spent most of the nearly half-hour discussion focused on screening dumpsters with fences elsewhere on the site than about what would go inside the building or how it would be used. Aside from a couple of clumsily worded questions on its somewhat curious design and placement, commissioners generally bit their tongues and made sure not to leave any implication that it mattered whether the room was made for smoking.
In fact, the commission decided unanimously to forgo a final review and fast-track the project, which Poole said he hoped would be ready for the July 5 change in laws.
The room is about 225 square feet and has four solid walls, including one that butts up against Wildcat Lanes' bar area. However, three of the walls have rather large windows that ensure the area is not considered "enclosed" by the definition in the state smoking ban.
According to the state law, an "enclosed area" is one that has at least three "substantial walls" and a permanent roof. A wall in which at least 25 percent of its area can be opened to the outside air is not considered "substantial."
In other words, a completely enclosed room by any other definition needs only to have two walls with large, openable windows to allow smoking.
Sylvester said he did not critique the construction of the building in that context but directed the company to check with the Verona Police Department to be certain the regulations would be met properly.
His official explanation of the building to the commission was a room that would "allow expanded bowling and tavern/restaurant-related uses."
That left Ald. Steve Ritt a bit confused, but after he asked what it was for - "It looks like an office" - and was told "It's a patio," the subject wasn't raised again for another 15 minutes.
Ritt was one of six alders who in March voted in favor of the strictest smoking ban in the state. It became effective Aug. 15 and prohibits all smoking in areas where food or drink is served, on city property (including parking lots), in city parks and in hotel rooms.
The state ban will not change most of those individual provisions, but a compromise with the Tavern League of Wisconsin prohibits local governments from restricting outdoor smoking at businesses any further. That will void the city's ban on smoking on outdoor restaurant patios.
Wildcat Lanes reluctantly embraced the ban last August, promoting itself to younger families and doing its best to clean up the stale smoke smell that had clung to the bar area. Management remained concerned, however, about safety, with the potential of bowlers walking outside in their bowling shoes and returning with wet shoes on a waxed surface.
The new room should help quell those concerns.
No action on displays
The Plan Commission did not take any action on potential changes to an ordinance regulating outdoor commercial displays.
The current ordinance covers such things as mulch, salt and windshield washer fluid offered for sale outside buildings, as well as ice machines, propane tank cages and vending machines. The Common Council recently denied a request to add a DVD rental machine at Walgreen's.
Normally such changes are part of the Plan Commission's annual cleanup in January, but of the five items discussed in that cleanup, two were considered somewhat controversial and in need of further discussion. None of the items was ready for a vote this month, so no public hearing was held.
In addition to revisiting the outdoor display rules - which likely will direct some items to be approved by city staff and others to face the commission and Common Council - the commission plans to put some further discussion into revising the boundaries of the city's two design overlay districts, on Main Street and Verona Avenue.
But three items are expected to go to a vote next month, including narrow restrictions on displaying vehicles for sale on commercial properties without a permit. That new rule, designed to address an annoyance on West Verona Avenue, would prohibit anyone who is not the property owner from putting a car out for sale and limit even the property owner to 30 days.
Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Article comment by:
Martin Morrow
I stand for the smokers and carpenters in michigan who could benefit from such additions. I also stand for the health of the public. If we are all happy thats all that counts. As a professional certified builder I know there are many ways to separate the air in both rooms with circulation and ventilation. If such buildings coexisted they could test the air quality outside the smoke room with filter analysis. I stand next to the hole in the wall.
Posted: Monday, May 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Rich Eggleston
I've spent some time in hole-in-the-wall bars, but the attorneys I've talked to say it is not necessary to create new ones.
Lawyers for local governments say under the new state anti-smoking law, municipalities retain the same authority they had under prior law to enact ordinances regulating indoor smoking: Municipalities can enact ordinances that, complying with the purposes of the state law, protect the health and comfort of the public. (see sec 101.123(4m), Stats.)
In other words, municipalities can adopt more, but not less, stringent regulations of indoor smoking, and can clarify what indoor areas are subject to the smoke-free law.
So what does the Verona City Council want to do, create a hole-in-the-wall bowling alley or protect public health? Fitchburg caved in. Will Verona?
