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Session 1806 <br />March 19, 2001 <br /> <br />Responding to Mr. Munkel, Mr. Liberto clarified that he is not here in an official capacity <br />representing the Loop Special Business District. He is here in his capacity as manager <br />of this property. <br /> <br />David Trauterman, 1617 Dawnbreak, St. Charles, the applicant, stated that the <br />Smoothie King organization thoroughly agrees with the first six conditions, but has <br />absolutely no control over the last two. They are asking the advice and guidance of the <br />City Council as to finding some type of alternative to this situation to provide parking. <br />They do not feel that they should be held hostage to this issue. Their business is not a <br />destination business - customers would be walking to their store. They have made <br />arrangements for off street parking for their employees. Hopefully, Council will consider <br />this in possibly removing the parking space condition. They want to do as much as they <br />can to help Council, as a corporate citizen, find a solution to his problem. <br /> <br />Nelson Howe, 714 Locust St., 63101, attorney for the property owner, Mr. Ghasedi. He <br />is here to state Mr. Ghasedi's objection to the last two conditions being added, which <br />have absolutely nothing to do with the operation of the Smoothie King site. <br /> <br />Responding to Mr. Munkel, Mr. Howe stated that the dumpster has been located on <br />Washington University property since Mr. Ghasedi purchased the property over 20 <br />years ago. This should not be a condition to operate Smoothie King to have the <br />dumpster moved. The offstreet parking regulations in the Loop area are not applicable <br />to this site. Mr. Ghasedi allocates parking spaces in his lot to his tenants. The bottom <br />line is that these last two conditions have absolutely nothing to do with the conditional <br />use permit and operation of Smoothie King. <br /> <br />The Mayor stated that there is are situations happening in the Loop, as noted earlier, <br />where it was mentioned that parking was major problem. There is a parking crisis in the <br />Loop and anytime there is a new business or expansion in the Loop, we have to try and <br />figure out ways of maintaining and expanding parking availability. It is critical for the <br />Loop. <br /> <br />Mr. Lieberman has been aware of this particular proposed occupancy for a long time <br />and at the time that these business people first envisioned the use of this lot, they had <br />contacted the City and had asked about things like parking. They were told by staff that <br />parking expansion would not be needed, because it was an existing building and that it <br />had existing businesses there. Consequently, no expansion would be needed in <br />parking requirements. He checked himself with City staff and was told exactly the same <br />thing. The business people started to expend a considerable amount of money for <br />architects, sketches and other things to proceed with the Council's final approval. The <br />Plan Commission placed the last two conditions on the original conditions, that they <br />originally agreed too, 1-6. Conditions 7 and 8 they have no control over. The Council <br /> <br />10 <br /> <br /> <br />