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County & City Zoning Changes


Brewder

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Hello,

I am working with my local legislator to revamp zoning rules in our county. Currently the zoning rules are quite restrictive and date from when the operating distilleries and breweries were places that produced thousands of gallons a week. Fast forward a few decades and there are no such businesses but an interest in small breweries, wineries and distilleries.

I have the attention of a county legislator who has his legal staff already working on a bill for craft breweries and wineries and has reacted very positively to my request and asked if I could gather examples of other municipal governments that have altered their zoning to allow distilling in Commercial zoned properties. Current zoning only allows it in Heavy Industrial zones.

What counties and cities would folks recommend and if you have specific links, I would be very grateful.

Kind regards,

-- Dan

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Hmmm. Surprised they won't allow in commercial zoning. My county is just, lumping it in with "winery and related businesses" which are allowed in every zoning down to "residential 5 ac minimum". But I live in CA wine country, and am lucking out with my local officials just thinking its cool, and not giving me much grief at all. Good luck to you! An agricultural minded area seems to be a good bet with this kind of business. Scrounge

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Not following, are you trying to get the city to change the zoning to accommodate you, or are you going before the planing board for a variance to allow you to operate in a zone other than permitted?

Similar story in our area, distilleries classified as permitted in the heaviest of heavy industrial districts. However, none of these areas are suited to our type of business.

We found an ideally suited property in a Business/Commercial zone, and because of the zoning we needed to petition the board for a variance to allow us to operate. It required an Attorney, an Architect, and a Planner, as well as expert testimony from a distillery owner in another township. As expected, the major hurdles were potential negative impacts to the area, and we had to provide additional testimony on the positive critera of allowing us to operate.

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Not following, are you trying to get the city to change the zoning to accommodate you, or are you going before the planing board for a variance to allow you to operate in a zone other than permitted?

Similar story in our area, distilleries classified as permitted in the heaviest of heavy industrial districts. However, none of these areas are suited to our type of business.

We found an ideally suited property in a Business/Commercial zone, and because of the zoning we needed to petition the board for a variance to allow us to operate. It required an Attorney, an Architect, and a Planner, as well as expert testimony from a distillery owner in another township. As expected, the major hurdles were potential negative impacts to the area, and we had to provide additional testimony on the positive critera of allowing us to operate.

I am working with them to change the zoning codes. Not a variance. I am currently working with one county for bonded storage (barrel aging), but have a city interested as well where I plan to initially operate (Industrial) but want to move to a more retail friendly location (Commercial) in a year. I will also be approaching another local rural county (farms) where I want to eventually move to for bonded storage (barrel aging).

I seem to have been lucky and have found very helpful local politicians and would like to see the same opportunity opened up for other breweries, wineries, and distilleries, not just mine. I believe the increased tax base and flow over for supporting businesses will be good for the county and city and will help create the region as a destination for consumers who wish to plan tours to visit mine and other establishments.

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I encountered this with my zoning people .. they told me that we would have to be zoned for the heaviest zoning possible (same as refinery). We managed to get a meeting with ALL of the zoning board and used pictures, and some statistics of local craft brewers to convince them that we were using the same type of process equipment and basically the same process as the craft brewers but on a smaller scale, and convinced them that craft distilleries should be treated the same as craft breweries.... Easy !! no problem ... Took 6 months ...

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I've heard similar challenges from the brewers around here, so the analogy approach could be double edged. In fact, we had to go out of our way to explain the differences between brewing and distilling, because the board had the perception that breweries of any scale produced nuisance odor in the neighborhood. We had to propose installing a carbon-based adsorptive dry scrubber on our fermenters as part of our odor control strategy. Anyone else using carbon dry scrubbers on their fermenters? I'd love to know if we're the first. Even the engineers at the big carbon houses were scratching their heads.

Hinging your plan on the local government to change the zoning and law carries with it risk. Not only timeline risk, since those guys move at the pace of cold molasses, but also risk that the change be denied. Zoning and master plan changes are generally not fast actions, at least around here they are not. In addition, there is huge risk of the unknown, since once they open the door to allow it, approvals are no longer on a case by case basis. While we might think it's great, the local community might see this as opening the door to dozens of problem businesses.

The biggest issue we faced from the local governments and zoning was a fear of the unknown.

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The current location is in the works with preliminary approval from the zoning board, comptroller, liquor board, and fire marshal for a location in Annapolis, MD, which is a city. The occupancy use permit is in the process. The location is industrial though fortunately it doesn't look industrial. It is a bit of moving when the effort to use a county location for storage starts, but the cost for square footage in the city is very expensive compared to the county. Being in the town of Annapolis has its advantages but it creates a need to control the operational costs and the county is cheaper even with the costs of staff time to move, the TTB paperwork involved, and a truck, factored in on a monthly basis

What I'm working on is new zoning rules for a location outside of the city in the county for DSP activities, to allow bonded storage for barrel storage/aging. In a few years we may expand to that location and keep the city location as storefront and small batch work. I'm also working on another county to effect the same zoning changes in case the other county changes do not pan out. I believe these changes will be helpful to all small craft breweries, wineries, and distilleries in the area, and support related businesses. Even if that breeds competition, it will potentically establish the region as a destination for consumers with this type of interest. And I like competition, it makes you think harder. I also like where I live and want to support growth.

Anyone have any pointers for municipalities that have altered their zoning to accommodate distilleries in commercial zoning districts?

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Brewder, I'm currently involved in the same process. We are trying to lease a space in a commercial zone and have been told we need an industrial zoned area. I prepared a presentation packet that I delivered to the local township planner that included these examples of communities that added "craft distilling" as allowable uses within commercial zones.

Hope these help!
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  • 1 month later...

The application for the location has been reviewed and I have been given a preliminary go ahead, no issues with the location from the city. Final permitting is pending all building permits and inspections. Put down a deposit on the locaiton yesterday.

I am meeting with a county rep next week to help introduce new legislation to allow distilling in heavy commercial zoning areas. This could be helpful for a long term storage bond area as $ per sq' is very high inside the city.

-- Dan

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Very good meeting with an Anne Arundel County Councilman that was also attended by a Maryland State Senator. (I am going to ask them if they want to be identified in public forums before saying who they are.) People complain about government but what I have consistently experienced are individuals working to improve the part of the world they have an impact on.

The bill for changing county code for craft breweries will go forward next month. After seeing how that is taken, and any changes made, the bill for changing zoning for craft distilleries will be submitted with necessary alterations. I hope the rules will not only help my business, but also allow small shops, professional hobbiests, and restaurants that have an interest in Micro Craft Breweries & Distilleries to begin opening businesses and expand their revenue as well as public options for craft brewed and distilled products. The tax base will improve as well.

I think the lesson learned from my side of the fence is to always offer to do more open ended and unbiased research in your presentation so that the politicians can form their own opinions rather than try and force your own view of things. Also something that I didn't do well this time but will improve on in the future is to research and identify how the expansion of this type of business will positively impact the social and economic standing of the region. And don't hide the warts. I offered up straight forward facts and advice on dealing with effluent, waste management, and the problem of mashing/distilling odors and how sizing impacts those factors. Given good information, they will find a compromise that helps people that are for and against the issues, agree somewhere in the middle.

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