Last night the request by Norman Butler and Dianne Burry to move their restaurant, Chapati: A Taste of India to 1001 Division Street entered another phase that Im thinking of as Round 3.

First the Council denied the request for a Future Land Use Map Amendment at 1001 Division Street South and then it denied the request to adopt an ordinance to re-zone the property from R-2 (1 and 2 family housing) to C-2 (commercial).

In the end, on a unanimous 6-0 vote, the Council approved a resolution that directs City staff to expeditiously explore the use of a PUD (Planned Unit Development) zone for 1001 Division Street with the property owner, Mr. Butler, and the neighbors.

The complete text of the resolution reads:

The city council of the City of Northfield, directs the staff to expeditiously explore the use of a PUD zone for 1001 Division Street with the property owner, Mr. Butler, and the neighbors. The goal of this effort is to permit Mr. Butlers restaurant use at 1001 Division while protecting the residential neighborhood from potential negative impacts from this commercial use or future commercial uses located at 1001 Division Street. The city council directs the staff to develop reasonable standards for the PUD zone that address the mixed residential and commercial use on the site, parking, lighting, noise, outdoor activities, landscaped buffering, hours of operation, future uses and other standards as suited for this purpose.

I’m guardedly optimistic that we will in time see Chapati open for business at 1001 Division Street. The City Council has opened the door to that possibility. For that I commend them.

I have two concerns. The first is that the exploration phase for the PUD move forward with dispatch. I wish that the Council had been bold enough to put a date in the resolution for an end to the exploratory phase or at least a progress report. The other concern is that the list of operational items that could end up with restrictions on them is long. I hope that all parties will be cognizant of the word reasonable that the resolution uses to call for the adoption of standards in the PUD zone.