By: Matt Brown
A local beer entrepreneur’s dream of establishing a microbrewery in Chestertown may not be dashed completely. Town Manager Bill Ingersoll and Mayor Margo Bailey said at Tuesday’s council meeting that the issue could be resolved.
“We’re happy to help on this,” said Town Manager Bill Ingersoll. “There’s a lot of places where this is a legal activity [and] there’s some other grandfathered places where it might work too.”
Ingersoll was responding to a recent statement by local architect and brewer Kevin Shertz that he was ending his bid to open a microbrewery in the Chestertown Business Park on Dixon Drive–due to uncertainties in getting zoning changes to build out his brewery—complete with space to sell his products to walk-in customers.
Ingersoll said the location was not zoned for retail use.
“Microbreweries weren’t envisioned in the earlier days when zoning was written, but we added them a few years ago when we were changing our zoning to a couple of zoning categories,” Ingersoll said.
Ingersoll said a microbrewery “would probably be fine” in commercial zones designated C1, C2, and C3. He also said that the [Chestertown Business Park] zoned for heavy industrial use would probably be OK for a brewery that gave away free samples of beer, but it was “not OK for retail sales.”
He said he suggested a text change amendment be forwarded to the planning commission.
“That’s what I recommended.”
Ingersoll said the planning commission would take up the matter at Wednesday’s meeting.
He reiterated that there are plenty of places for this type of brewery in Chestertown.
“We have four zonings that would work for a retail-slash-microbrewery,” Ingersoll said.
Ingersoll said it might take a couple weeks, but “with a little patience, we can straighten it out. This is a hybrid kind of thing; it’s a microbrewery with a tasting room that is 800 square feet…where you would be able to purchase the alcohol, so it is hard to distinguish in a way from a bar, and that’s the only nuance.”
Ingersoll said he can only give his opinion on zoning but “he can’t make it up.”
“In this case the right people to authorize it are the planning commission…I just don’t think there is going to be any issues with it, you just have to have stamina, I think, to get a business started.”
He suggested that Shertz is probably fatigued by the process.
“I think this individual has come through a lot of regulation and maybe was too tired to cross the tape,” Ingersoll said.
“Bill is going to work this out,” Bailey said.
Ingersoll said that the property owner, KRM Development, decided against leasing to a brewery because of experience with a microbrewery at another facility.
“I think the property owners have declined based on their past knowledge of a brewery they have at another industrial site where there is an issue of odor,” Ingersoll said.
Shertz wrote a letter to the Spy this morning.
I’m humbled that there has been so much ongoing interest in the microbrewery concept. Unfortunately, I do not see a path forward for this project that makes financial sense. There was a window of opportunity where it looked like a possible arrangement with a Light Industrial landlord could occur, but once the Town rejected that concept, the landlord revoked their support for hosting the project.
According to Chestertown’s web site, the Planning Commission will be discussing a text amendment for Chestertown’s Zoning Ordinance in this evening’s meeting. I have expressed to them in writing that I believe both Commercial and Industrial zones are appropriate for a microbrewery. For me, Light Industrial was the best location to maximize potential and minimize risk. The manufacturing process is the scalable portion of this business, and as you scale up your production, your need for loading docks, etc. only increases.
What people don’t realize is I have looked at a variety of commercial spaces over the past 7 months in Chestertown, Rock Hall, and even considered “setting up shop” on some local farms. I’ve run the numbers, spent several days attending a “Start Your Own Brewery” course at the Siebel Institute (the oldest brewing school in the U.S.) in Chicago this past May, and am headed back there at the end of this month for several weeks of formal brewing classes. I’m very confident in my knowledge of the industry and how such a speculative venture may work in Chestertown, and am comfortable with my decision.
While I have not been contacted by Bill Ingersoll or Margo Bailey since announcing my decision to terminate this project, I would be happy to speak with either of them about some of the unique challenges this type of industry faces so they may be better prepared if they have another prospective microbrewery founder approach them in the future.
Kevin Shertz
Lisa Jacob says
Guess that’s why the Health Dept. gives away the condoms in the Industrial Park….
Kevin Shertz says
““I think this individual has come through a lot of regulation and maybe was too tired to cross the tape,” Ingersoll said.”
No, Bill, what I’m “tired” of is people who haven’t crunched a single number and have zero industry knowledge attempting to tell me what is or is not a viable, sustainable business model in Chestertown.
I put forward a proposal, it was shot down, I decided to pull the plug as a result of said decision, and now the Town is now scrambling against the public backlash that has followed. That’s all this is.
Had the Town simply accepted — as Easton does — that a microbrewery is an acceptable use for Light Industrial zoning, I could have proceeded and the zoning could have been updated without any fuss. There would have been at least a 6-12 month timeframe of Federal/State permitting before it would have opened.
And, let’s be perfectly clear about this — KRM indicated no objections whatsoever to me until AFTER the Town decided they didn’t want it there.
Mike Hunt says
I can’t imagine having to pay rent or mortgage payments on a property for 6 months to a year or more without knowing if I would ever be able to open. Anti-business climate anyone?