A businessman from Hanover is looking to spend over a million dollars to bring a bar/cafe/restaurant business to Becker and Becker City Hall was jam-packed when a public hearing was announced in regards to the project.

 

However, the majority of the discussion from the public on the new business venture at Monday’s planning commission meeting did not focus on the fact the pub/restaurant would be across the street from another like establishment — the majority of discussion centered around a problem some T-Town businesses have been debating with the city for nearly a decade.

 

Parking. 

 

Parking. Parking. 

 

Parking.

 

Larry Sperr of Hanover has purchased the Pedal Inn Antiques store and land and intends to renovate the existing building into a bar, convert the upstairs to apartment living, create an outdoor cafe and attach a family-style restaurant to it all and name it LaFloyd’s.

 

Joan Bondhus and Holly Neuman, proprietors of Pedal Inn Antiques, are planning on “getting out of the business due to health issues.”

 

They are currently holding a huge sale for items they own and a sale for some of their dealer items.

 

Sperr hopes to have the pub/restaurant/cafe open for business by March 1 of 2017.

 

At Monday’s public hearing, the planning commission listened to public input, however, the only agenda issue to act on was to approve or disapprove Sperr’s request for a CUP to allow for a restaurant/café, exterior dining and a residence on the second floor within the T-Town district. 

 

The planning commission approved the request.

 

Prior to the opening of the public hearing, Marie Pflipsen gave an overview of the Sperr project and indicated adequate measures will be taken to provide sufficient off-street parking and loading space to serve the proposed use. That off-street parking included parking along streets in residential areas in some cases as far away as two blocks from the buildings.

 

Joe and Stephanie Gruenes of Gruenes Dentistry approached the planning commission with concerns about the new business coming in.

 

There are just 36 spots including 17 on the street that are shared between our business, Nix, the chiropractor and other area businesses down there,” said Joe. “Now to bring in another business with a high demand for parking, there just isn’t enough parking as is.”

 

Though Joe Gruenes said he was not shooting down the idea of the city bringing in a new business, he said he was not in favor of the project due to the already existing problem.

 

Joe and Stephanie also said another concern is the lack of handicap parking for all the businesses.

 

“There is one,” said Joe. “And this subject is near and dear to me for the fact I have a family member in a wheelchair.”

 

Another issue the Grueneses brought up is the fact the city hasn’t provided adequate space in their city-owned parking lot between Gruenes Dentistry and Nix to accommodate the dumpsters.

 

“Our dumpster already takes up parking spaces in the lot,” Joe said. “It’s another thing to take into consideration.”

 

Shelly Mattson of Nix Restaurant piggy-backed the Grueneses concerns, saying she has been “living this problem for seven years.”

 

“The hair salon needs parking, the dog place needs parking, I need parking, the dentist shop needs parking — and now to bring another business in that’ll need much more parking? Something needs to be done,” she said.

 

“Thirty-six spots for eight businesses?” she quipped. “That’s just not good.”

 

Other citizens from the public spoke and reiterated what the Grueneses and Mattson pointed out, that there just isn’t enough parking near the businesses at the present time.

 

City Administrator Greg Pruszinske told the planning commission the green space to the north of Nix is in the 2017 budget to be developed into a parking space.

 

Members of the audience said it still wouldn’t be enough.

 

The city also owns property to the north of Gruenes Dentistry along Central Ave. and Willow St., but Pruszinske said the city has been sitting on that piece of property should the T-Town area develop and more retail space became a need.

 

“We can certainly discuss utilizing that space or others in regards to parking,” said Pruszinske. “That whole area was up for redevelopment a few years ago when we wanted to bypass some roads and align things better in that area.”

 

After the closing of the public hearing, Member Todd Hanrahan acknowledged parking is a major concern — even before the new business wanting to come to town — and said he feels the planning commission and council “need to facilitate something very quickly.”

 

Member Tracy Bertram wholeheartedly agreed.

 

“I want to thank everybody in the public who spoke about this parking issue because it really opened my eyes to a problem we need to get settled very soon,” she said. 

 

Member Linda Serfling agreed but expressed her disappointment that things don’t seem to get done at the city council level.

 

“”We have had these conversations and visions about changing the parking and the roads and such for several years now and it gets frustrating that it gets passed over whenever it gets to the council level,” she said. “It’s been obvious we need more parking down there, but we at the planning commission only have the vision and the planning. It’s up to city council to implement them.”

 

Bertram defended council by saying, “We have seen these issues come up before and have been making plans to implement them, but sometimes things come up that become priorities,” she said. “Such as the Hancock Street crossover of the tracks. That’s something that came up quickly from BNSF and we had to divert funds from other future projects to get that done in the timeframe we had. We’ll just have to consider this a major priority.”

 

Sperr plans to keep most of the exterior and much of the interior elements of the antique shop in their original form while moving the outdoors stairway to the back of the building and removing the indoors elevator. The existing single-story masonry building in the back of the lot will be the kitchen and LaFloyd’s family restaurant will be a new single-story steel-framed structure. It will connect to the new bar and the two buildings will share a patio space between the buildings along the sidewalk out front.

 

Sperr says he wants LaFloyd’s to be a “destination place” for people from all over the state and has no intention of trying to drive out any other businesses (Nix) or take over their clientele.

 

Sperr sees his business (LaFloyd’s) as being more of a family-oriented restaurant where, in his mind, Nix is more for the bar crowds. He says he plans on serving the best food around and his main emphasis will be on treating the customers right.

 

“Becker is a great location and if we can keep the residents from going off to St. Cloud, Maple Grove or even Big Lake (Russell’s) to get a good meal, than we’ve accomplished something,” Sperr said. “We want to help make Becker be known for serving great food and being community-minded.”

 

In other news the planning commission:

 

• Approved a CUP for Kwik Trip to tear down the car wash at the SA Station on Rolling Ridge, expand the current building and install a new canopy and pumps;

 

• Opted out of allowing for the temporary placement of health care dwellings in the City of Becker;

 

• Reviewed a business attraction letter composed by  Lynette Brannan of the Becker Area Chamber of Commerce;

 

• Reviewed a resolution in support of attracting businesses to the city.

 

The next Becker Planning Commission meeting is Sept. 26 at 6 p.m.