The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a license that will allow a new restaurant planned for Elm Street to use a town-owned alleyway that runs along the western side of the movie theater.
The owners of Blackbird restaurant are seeking “a secondary means of egress out of the building” at 105 Elm St., according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“We’re currently analyzing whether or not this will affect what we’re doing with the Playhouse,” Mann told the selectmen at their Aug. 15 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We don’t think that it necessarily will come into play, but we finalized where we’re coming out into the alleyway and where they’re coming out to the alleyway. And we’re having our code consultant take a look and make sure that everything is satisfactory. And if it meets with all of our requirements from a code situation, we have no qualms about granting them a license to utilize the property.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of granting the license.
According to Mann, the license will not become a grandfathered right for future tenants—rather, it will be specific to the Blackbird and its restaurant use of the commercial space.
The selectmen asked whether there are liability issues with the license (the town already keeps the alleyway shoveled and its responsible for it), whether it’s an “emergency exit” (it’s an exit for the theater), whether anyone could enter the Playhouse from the alley (no), whether Blackbird patrons are expected to enter the restaurant from the alleyway (no), what is the width of the alleyway (it starts off narrow and becomes wider, about six feet at the area under discussion) and whether a stretcher could be carried in the alley if needed in an emergency (yes).
Moynihan noted that the proposed egress for Blackbird “is not an emergency exit” for the restaurant.
“It’s actually something probably employees would use commonly of the tenant and even patrons,” he said, adding: “They need the additional doorway to allow more occupancy in the building. If they don’t have this method of access and egress, they can’t have as many people in the building. That’s why they want it.”