The Chestertown Council approved amendments to its zoning laws Monday that update and clarify regulations in various commercial districts for coffee roasters, small breweries and brew pubs, distilleries, and wineries.
“This is the fastest I’ve ever seen a zoning ordinance be prepared to be passed,” said Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll.
Ingersoll said the quick zoning change was a move afoot to accommodate a local entrepreneur’s desire to open a microbrewery in town—referring to local architect Kevin Shertz’s dream of becoming a local brewer. Shertz’s business model would include a tasting room, packaged goods for consumption off premises, as well as sales for consumption of beer and ale on the premises–three to four days a week.
Shertz had hoped to start his microbrewery in the Chestertown Business Park on Dixon Drive—an area zoned for light industrial use, or LI-2. But the sale of beer for onsite consumption hit a snag with the planning commission, which thought a bar-type operation may not be compatible in an industrial park heavily trafficked by cement trucks and tractor trailers. The commission held that onsite consumption was more compatible in C1, C2, and C3 districts where restaurants and bars normally exist.
The amendments do not flatly prohibit the sale of beer for onsite consumption in an industrial zone, but instead permit onsite consumption on a “conditional basis”—pending a review process that would give neighbor tenants a chance to approve or reject any decision “to essentially allow a bar” in an industrial zone, said Chestertown Planning Chairman Chris Cerino.
Shertz said the law passed Monday ignores federal law which allows microbreweries to sell beer for onsite consumption for up to 4,000 barrels annually.
“The Chestertown Town Council approved the microbrewery legislation — the opposite outcome of what we were hoping for since it redefines for its own purposes what “microbrewery” means,” Shertz said from his Facebook page.
The amendments allow microbreweries and brew pubs to exist in C1, C2, and C3 commercial zones, and allow for a tasting room and retail sales element in microbreweries—as long as they are not housed in in the same buildings that also have residential dwellings.
In the 8-minute video below, Cerino tells the council how the zoning amendments were decided.
Pamela Allen says
Good news, I’m so excited!
Christine Betley says
I’d like to recommend a correction. The Class 7 license being referenced would actually allow the onsite consumption of 4000 “barrels”, which I believe is around 125,000 gallons of beer. This may be an important detail in evaluating the Planning Commission’s decision to allow “on- and off-site sale and consumption” as a ‘conditional use’ to the light industrial zones.
Daniel Menefee says
Author Note: Thanks and noted.
Janet Brandon says
Actually history shows that beer is a nourishing food…that’s how even the old cathedrals were able to be built by the nourished monks….Right on!