Over Neighbors' Objections, Zoning Change Allows Microbrewery, Tasting Room

Michigan ranks fifth in the nation in the number of microbreweries and craft brewers, according to the Michigan Brewers Guild. (Photo via Shutterstock)

____________________

A microbrewery and tasting room got the go-ahead from the Royal Oak City Commission Monday, despite a chorus of opposition from neighbors. Commissioner Peggy Goodwin cast the dissenting vote in the 6-1 decision that moves the project forward on East Lincoln.

Neighbors worried about odors, traffic congestion and intoxicated customers associated with the 13,000-square-foot brewery and 77-seat tasting room, which will be open seven days a week, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The $1.5 million project will be built in a vacant warehouse Greg Cooksey, 43, of Grosse Pointe Shores bought in 2013. Cooksey is managing director of C.G. Emerson Real Estate Group, a Royal Oak company that has developed other key commercial properties in the city.

Cooksey thinks the development “is going to be exactly the catalyst for improving the area.”

“This is going to clean up the area,” Cooksey said.

Tell Us:

• Do you support or oppose this project?

The project also would provide jobs for about 15 people. Beer would be sold mainly to stores and restaurants.

About 50 residents signed a petition asking the city to deny rezoning request that would move the project forward.

“That brewery is not neighborhood-compatible,” 16-year Royal Oak resident Alex Schnaider, 56, told the Free Press earlier.

“We already have a downtown full of bars, and there’s more coming,” said Schnaider, who lives about 1½ blocks from the site. “We get drunks crashing into parked cars, yelling at night, (and) they leave bottles and trash.”

Goodwin agreed, calling the brewery “yet another place that serves alcohol in an area that’s already saturated with liquor licenses.”

Cooksey said the business model isn’t that of a bar, and only about 10 percent of the space will be dedicated to the tasting room. The tasting room will close at 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 10 p.m. on other nights, long before traditional bars.

Under the action taken by the City Commission, the zoning classification reverts back to General Industrial from Mixed Use-1. The property was rezoned to the mixed-use classification more than a decade ago to encourage condominium development, but tht never happened, City Manager Don Johnson said.

There is some residential housing in the area, but for the most part, the industrial feel of the area, the nearby railroad tracks and the high-voltage wires of a DTE Energy substation made the area unappealing to condominium and office complex developers, said Mayor Jim Ellison, who voted for the rezoning request.

“Not everything alcohol-related is bad,” he said.

If the brewery doesn’t open, the rezoning could be withdrawn.

Other details of the brewery include a light food menu of pizza and salads in the tasting room, and a drive-up window where customers can purchase fresh beer in growlers.

Michigan currently ranks fifth in the number of craft brewers and microbrewers, bolstered in part by pure water and rich glacier soil, the Michigan Brewers Guild says.