PEABODY — It was the tale of two businesses Thursday night at the Peabody City Council meeting: One group received near immediate acceptance for all it set out to do while the other applicants faced nearly two hours of debate and deliberation from the councilors before some of their special-permit requests were approved.
Two Washington St., the Bell Inn & Tavern project proposed by developer Ed Greeley and Farm Group Realty, sailed through its special permit approval with compliments from councilors; only minor concerns were cited about handicap accessibility and parking.
On the other hand, Olio, the event space owned by Sarah Narcus and her mother Ellen Basch, had to fight to simplify hours, a requested condition of their special permit that was primarily aimed at condensing the time spent cleaning up the venue with the time they can pack up the event.
“Every day, all day, my mom and I think about this downtown; all the work we do is on behalf of this downtown’s improvement,” Narcus said during the special-permit hearing, which was continued from a previous council meeting.
Ultimately, after two hours of debate, Olio’s owners only received approval for a portion of the special-permit changes that they were seeking.
The City Council voted unanimously to give Olio an extra 30 minutes of operating time on Thursday nights and to make Sunday morning operating hours start at 8 a.m. The owners also received an extra hour in the morning for deliveries on Sunday and the ability to load and unload event materials until midnight on Thursdays. They also received the ability to use the back doors of Olio for special entrances for brides, grooms and guests of honor.
The atmosphere at the City Council meeting was calmer and more conversational than two weeks ago — when the special-permit hearing began — as the councilors discussed the different roads forward for Olio’s special permit.
“I appreciate business and everything you’ve done,” said Councilor-at-Large Tom Rossignoll. “We all want a thriving downtown, but the question is how do we get there?”
Half a dozen people from the neighborhood behind Olio spoke against the extended hours that Narcus had proposed two weeks ago, saying that the late hours were disruptive to their sleeping patterns and that they couldn’t believe that events could go until 11 p.m. on weeknights.
Prior to the hearing, Narcus had removed many of the requests that abutters had raised concerns about, such as extending her operating hours on Mondays through Thursdays.
Only one person, Matt Molk, who is on the board of directors for Peabody Access TV and recently ran for councilor of Ward 5, spoke in favor of Olio’s requests.
“You were so quick to deny her the conversation,” said Molk. “The optics of this is that there is a group of good ol’ boys looking out for their own instead of the better interests of the city.”
Molk added that he didn’t feel the noise could be too horrible. In his closing remarks, he said that treatment of Narcus and Olio would lead to other businesses hesitating when looking at Peabody as a potential location.
“You can all trade ghost stories about how you turned downtown Peabody into a ghost town,” Molk said.
Despite the tension, Narcus said that she is still happy that she was able to participate in the public hearing and is currently planning her next move.
“We didn’t get what we asked for in terms of permit changes, and we didn’t get what we needed to be in line with other downtown businesses,” Narcus wrote in a statement the day after the meeting. “That said, we are grateful to have had the chance to be heard in a public setting. We continue to believe in the vision of a vibrant and bustling downtown. We’ll regroup now to consider our next steps.”
Katelyn Sahagian can be reached at [email protected].
