Cafe proposed for 118 West Main Street seeks city planning approval

A proposed cafe at 118 West Main Street, the corner building vacant since Vince's Seafood closed, encountered some resistance at the Westminster Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, May 21, when commissioners pushed back on the building's exterior design and voted to continue the review at a future meeting.

The applicant is Gennaldy Khizin, operating through Port Baku LLC. The project would convert the 0.20-acre corner property, zoned D-B Downtown Business and located within Westminster's Historic District, into a 1,256-square-foot cafe with 16 seats and five on-site parking spaces.

At the meeting, city planning director Mark Depo shifted his department's recommendation on the spot, from conditional approval to a continuance. Staff said they felt the revised elevations needed to come back before the full commission, not just be handled administratively, given the scope of the design concerns.

The sticking point was the building's proposed exterior. One commissioner said they were "very excited to see something happen there," given what a highly visible corner it is, but had sharp words for the design: "No offense to the elevations up there, but it looks like something I could see in a suburban retail environment. The elevations don't do anything for me when it comes to trying to maintain the historic character of downtown."

The commissioner pointed to the next agenda item, a redevelopment at 285 East Green Street, as an example of the right approach, saying those elevations were "very much trying to ground it into the historic nature of downtown" and that "if you took that little building and you added some cute red and white awnings on it and some planters out front, I think it would fit."

Depo agreed: "There's a lot lacking in this design. It's a solid flat roof. There's supposed to be some change in elevation. The facade itself is flat, basic." He added that "it really comes down to the architecture" and suggested the applicant could potentially be back before the commission next month if revisions move quickly.

The applicant's engineer, Josh Royal of DSA & Associates, told the commission the team was willing to work with whatever direction they provided: "Our client's been at it for a while, just trying to renovate a building and make it useful. It's been vacant. I think everybody would like it to move forward. We're more than happy to work with you architecturally. We just need to know which direction you'd like us to go."

The Historic District Commission had already weighed in at a May 6 meeting, recommending more brick on the facade, less contemporary lighting, decorative awnings, goose-neck lighting, and historically compatible door hardware. City planning staff said those recommendations needed to be incorporated and that revised elevations required approval before any site plan could be finalized.

One aspect of the project that drew no objection: the closure of the Pennsylvania Avenue driveway access, which has been used informally as a cut-through to avoid the traffic light at the West Main Street/Pennsylvania Avenue intersection. Staff described it as creating "potential vehicular and pedestrian safety concerns." The closure, along with sidewalk, curb, and gutter improvements on both streets, would be required before the building could be occupied.

The commission voted to continue the review during a future meeting. The applicant will need to return with revised architectural elevations addressing the Historic District Commission's recommendations and the commission's feedback on downtown design compatibility.

Once the commission is satisfied with the design, it could grant conditional approval, after which the applicant would still need to obtain building permits before construction could begin.