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Village is stuck inside the box
(by Barbara Christian - September 28, 2011)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Village is stuck inside the box
They should have given it a try, at least for a couple of months to see if would work ... to find out if there was any truth to the dire predictions and feared consequences. A couple of months. What could it have hurt?
Instead, Chagrin Falls decision makers and permission granters passed the buck and treated the request like a badminton bird, batting it back and forth until proponents of the idea got tired of the game.
Proponents in this case are the couple dozen Main Street retailers who asked for a moratorium of certain zoning regulations so they could market their businesses outside the confines of their stores. They wanted permission to attract customers by putting items out in front of their shops, and they wanted to do it while the weather is still nice and foot traffic is lively.
But their request fell on deaf ears. What they had been doing and what they wanted to continue doing legally is a zoning code no-no. There were complaints followed by warnings and at least one citation. How many and who complained is unknown. The village administration said they asked not to be named.
But what if petitioning shopkeepers were allowed a trial period during which each could display a single item on the door or on the sidewalk? What if said item did not block the sidewalk and was confined to, say, a 3-by-5-foot patch of concrete?
Trial periods are not new. Sidewalk dining is a part of the village street scene, because restaurant owners were given a chance to try it out.
Shopkeepers like Jonathan Fields will not have that same opportunity. He has paid a $244 fine for putting a stuffed camel in the doorway alcove of his Caravan Splendors shop. The camel cost less than the fine, but he knows the true value of the little guy. Jonathan has a handmade sales chart to prove his point to decision makers and permission granters.
Today the camel sits legally inside Jonathan's shop door, peering out at the passers-by who used to pat his head, take his picture and occasionally went inside to buy something.
Jonathan said his adventure in marketing in Chagrin Falls was enlightening and his dealing with the village zoners was revealing.
"I was amazed at how alarmed and fearful they looked when presented with the possibility of any potential rule changes," he said. "I felt like a buzzing fly the (board of zoning appeals) wished it could whack as quickly as possible before I became a further irritant to the old guard."
Still, Jonathan said he has no plans of selling his building or moving his shop out of Chagrin Falls. He will open a smaller one in a mall, where he says he will have a captive audience, winterized setting and hopefully make up on sales he will lose during the off-season in Chagrin Falls.
The zoners did leave the door open a crack. They said they would study the idea but promised any changes would not happen quickly. Jonathan is not holding his breath, predicting, if there are any changes, they will be "minuscule" and "not during my grandchildren's lifetime."
So what have we learned? That zoning codes and rigid thinking do not support out-of-the-box ideas. This recalls the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said "... foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds ..."
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