N.O. Bar Back On Zoning Board Agenda March 21
When: Tuesday, March 21 at 7 p.m.
Where: Charlestown Town Hall
What: Two items: (1) N.O. Bar, LLC, is requesting a Special Use Permit to construct a bar on an existing deck and (2) N.O. Bar, LLC, is appealing the ruling by Charlestown’s Zoning Official that the new use is an Outdoor Café that requires a different special permit. N.O. Bar is located at 523 Charlestown Beach Road.
N. O. Bar was originally granted a liquor license by the Charlestown Town Council in April of 2021. At the public hearing before the Town Council, the applicant testified that the intent was to serve food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages, from the Clam Shack’s take-out window. The Charlestown Town Council renewed the liquor license in December.
The renewed liquor license allows alcohol service from the take-out window only. During the hearing, the applicant made a decision to return to the Town Council with its request to expand the liquor license to include service from an outdoor bar after its application to the Zoning Board was heard and decided.
N.O. Bar was first before the Zoning Board in December when it requested a Special Use Permit for “Intensification of a Nonconforming Use to construct a bar on an existing deck.” Based on materials and testimony from the applicant at the December Zoning Board meeting, Charlestown’s Zoning Officer has ruled that the proposed use is an “Outdoor Café,” a use that requires an additional Special Use Permit in the zone where the N.O. Bar is located. N.O. Bar is appealing the ruling that their proposal amounts to an Outdoor Café.
At the Zoning Board hearing in December, the applicant stated that the purpose of the structure would be to provide elevated seating so that Clam Shack patrons would have a view of the pond.
As described by the Zoning Officer in her ruling, the plans before the Zoning Board show a bar with “a keg unit, two sinks with hot and cold water, an ice container, drains, bottle cooler, bottle storage, shelving and cabinetry.” The Zoning Officer also stated, “The proposed bar is a fully plumbed structure with equipment used to serve alcohol and shuck and serve oysters, and not a structure providing only seating for customers to enjoy a better view.”
In December, members of the Zoning Board observed on visiting the property that, even though the N. O. Bar had not received approval from the Zoning Board to build the elevated seating, the structure had already been substantially built and contained refrigerators, shelving, and stainless steel surfaces. The seating is arranged in the round with many of the seats looking away from the pond and a center area where a bartender would stand.
There has been considerable neighborhood opposition at both the Town Council and Zoning Board meetings. Most of the neighbors have spoken favorably of the Clam Shack, which has been in operation for 40 years or more. Their objections have been, not to the Clam Shack itself, but to the changes that have occurred since the addition of the liquor license shortly before the summer season last year.
Neighbors have described erratic driving on Charlestown Beach Road, a very narrow and busy road with many pedestrians; an increase in littering; an increase in noise; and occurrences of people vomiting and relieving themselves outdoors and in public view. None of these behaviors, however, has been reported to the police.
Neighbors have voiced concern that these problems and behaviors would greatly intensify if alcohol and food were to be served from the proposed outdoor bar.
The applicant’s attorney has claimed during the public hearing and in submissions to the Zoning Board that the Zoning Board can only consider the structure and that it cannot speculate about some future use the structure may be put to. That is, the applicant’s attorney has said that the structure is no different than the tables and chairs that already exist on the deck. The attorney has assured the Zoning Board that there is no expansion or change in use.
During the course of the December meeting, however, the applicant testified that one purpose for the bar is to provide an outdoor food preparation space because the kitchen is too small for messy operations like shucking oysters. Also, the applicant had originally requested that the liquor license apply to the service of alcohol from the bar on the deck when it applied to renew its liquor license.
In addition to its applications to the Zoning Board, N.O. Bar also applied to the Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) in September 2022 for permission to construct an outdoor bar. Plans submitted with the application to the CRMC show the same design presented to the Zoning Board—that is, a circular counter with keg and bottle chillers, sinks, hot and cold running water, shelving and counter tops, and space for a bartender to stand and work in the center.
On Tuesday, the Charlestown Zoning Board may decide whether to allow the construction of the outdoor bar. The Zoning Board, acting as the Board of Appeals, also needs to rule on the appeal from the ruling of the Zoning Official that characterizes this use as an outdoor café.
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The banner image is a drawing of the outdoor bar provided by the applicant in their application to CRMC.