The Red Light Management proposed plan to open a music hall on Preston Avenue appears to be in doubt following last night’s meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission. After a number of community members rose to speak out against the deal and presented the Commission with a petition stating opposition to the proposed venue, Starr Hill Presents, LLC (the group representing Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management) has decided to withdraw its request for a special use permit.
As of this afternoon there was no official word on how the Red Light Management group plans to move forward but it appears any hopes of finding a suitable venue to replace the Satellite Ballroom, at least in the immediate future, are in jeopardy. The Satellite Ballroom, as we all know, closed in May of this year after losing its lease to CVS Pharmacy.
The application for a special use permit was submitted in late July by Starr Hill Presents to open a restaurant/dance hall in a 5,000 square foot warehouse located on the King Lumber property at 608 Preston Avenue. By withdrawing on the special use permit before it was given an up or down vote by the City Planning Commission, the Red Light deal is not dead, but in the face of organized community opposition the approval process would face a much more uncertain outcome.
The Red Light group had hoped to use the venue to host live music shows through the final months of 2009 and then move the operation into the Jefferson Theater on the Downtown Mall, where renovations are currently underway. Now what???
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Tagged as: , Charlottesville Planning Commission, Music, news, Preston Avenue concert hall, Starr Hill Presents
well, doesn’t this just suck. i wonder what the community members were so opposed to. i walk by this building 4 or 5 times a week - i can’t imagine how putting a rock club and restaurant there would make the area any less palatable.
Several residents spoke against noise, traffic and other concerns. We didn’t cover this issue directly at Charlottesville, but I’d be happy to pull the audio out from the ten-hour meeting for people. The item looked like it went on for well over an hour before the Commission. I only caught bits and pieces of the discussion, but at one point, Commissioner Mike Farruggio (police officer during the day) was concerned about the lack of fencing in the property.
One more thing that might save me from pulling out the audio - folks who want to watch what happened can go to the City’s website here to watch it themselves. You’ll want to watch two parts. Many of the neighbors who complained did not make their comments during the public hearing itself, but during the part before the meeting. That part is maybe 30 minutes into the file, after the Commissioners and staff made their various reports.
The second part is the actual item itself, which I believe is about three hours into this file, give or take twenty minutes.
In listening to the presentation before the Planning Commission a number of concerns were brought forward to the commission for consideration by residents living in the 10th and Page community. They include the following: security, trash, increased traffic, potential for increased violence, affect on property values, detrimental affect on community and lifestyle, and the close proximity to a church. The petition submitted on behalf of the residents of the 10th and Page community against the proposed music hall contained 76 signatures. The commission did receive 43 emails from individuals in supported of the venue.
Again, this never came to a vote as Starr Hill Presents deferred on a vote by the commission. From what I saw I have to believe that the vote would have been unanimously against granting the special use permit as is. The decision now on the part of Starr Hill Presents will be to either address the concerns presented by local residents and re-submit the application for consideration or to scrap the whole idea altogether. It doesn’t look promising at this point.
Thanks Sean for the link. And if you want to watch the actual presentatin before the commission it starts just before the 5 hour mark in the video link provided above.
Shaun.. very good scoop! and Sean, thanks for the info.
I wonder why these issues weren’t considered in the first place. Surely, a music venue is a residential area has to raise some questions, but at the same time, this part of Charlottesville isn’t very nice and I can’t imagine a music venue charging $25+ for tickets would really increase crime in the area. There has to be some other thought process in the works, because this doesn’t make sense to me. Wouldn’t this sort of venue increase property values? It’s not like the noise ordinance would be eliminated for the venue, right?
I was there & quite surprised. I respect that the residents concerns were sincere. I do think they were, for the most part unfounded. This property is not part of any neighborhood. The production would be “aimed” towards preston. I do not believe the noise was an issue. 10th & Page now deals with all of the “potential” issues they were bringing up… crime, litter… They complained about the sound of cars! You are in a city, right? Their concerns mis characterized the intent of having the room. It looked like Footloose in there. Too bad there was no one there to speak up in support, only emails.
The noise ordinance came up in the discussion a number of times. I didn’t even think of it until I watched the meeting but this is the first application to come before the commission for a music venue since the noise ordinance was passed.
In the presentation Kirby Hutto (who represented Starr Hill Presents) told the commission that they had sound engineers check the place out and the engineers were confident that noise would not be a problem. One other point that came up in the meeting regarding sound issues. Prior to the noise ordinance numerous complaints were filed against Outback Lodge, since the noise ordinance there have been no complaints.
The other thing to keep in mind is that this venue was only going to be in operation for maybe a year. Once the Jefferson is completed the proposed music hall was to be abandoned in favor of the new digs. I will say this, if there is no medium sized venue in Charlottesville betweene now and the end of next year, it will be C’ville’s loss and Richmond’s gain (i.e. The National and Toad’s Place)
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[…] that we may not hear in Charlottesville in the coming months now that the proposed deal for the Preston Avenue music hall seems to have fallen through. It could be Richmond / D.C. or bust for more than a few Charlottesville music fans who are […]
[…] more details on the outcome of the initial August 12 Planning Commission Meeting, click here. Additional information regarding the concerns put forth by the 10th and Page community group […]
[…] Tonight’s meeting would have marked the second time in as many months that the commission would have heard from the Red Light group concerning the special use permit application. Back in August the RLM group made their initial presentation to the commission which drew strong opposition from citizens living in the nearby 10th and Page community. At that August meeting, Starr Hill Presents decided to defer a decision on their application with the hopes of addressing many of the community concerns before deciding whether to move forward with the plans or to scrap the idea entirely. [Read more about that August Planning Commission meeting here.] […]