Johnny Mac’s vote postponed
City Hall says plans came in late; owner says he wasn't aware of deadline
The planning board was scheduled to hear an application for a large-scale expansion of Johnny Mac’s at its meeting last night and later vote on the matter, but it was tabled because officials said plans came in late to City Hall.
John McGillion, the Main Street tavern’s owner, said he was unaware of a deadline for giving new renderings to the city.
McGillion, along with his attorney, architect and engineer, attended the Feb. 25 planning board meeting and presented plans for the expansion [pictured above and at right]. He hopes to convert the parking lot that borders Johnny Mac’s to the north into a beer garden with a mezzanine and outdoor seating.
He also wants to implement a new bar, Mary Mac, above Bistro Olé. That bar will connect to the mezzanine and beer garden. Finally, he will create a space for banquets, weddings and events just east of Mary Mac.
At the February meeting, the planning board asked McGillion to come back with more exact renderings of the proposed three phases of construction. McGillion’s architects submitted the new plans to City Hall in the afternoon on Friday, March 8, to be reviewed for the March 11 meeting.
But such plans need to be on-record with the city at least 10 days prior to the meeting where they’ll be considered, board attorney Jack Serpico said. Thus, the deadline for the plans was Friday, March 1, five days after McGillion’s first planning board hearing.
“We’re not familiar with you giving us an ultimatum about anything having to be due,” McGillion said. “We don’t remember anyone saying it had to be due on a certain date.”
“We had a discussion on the record about getting these plans in with sufficient time for our crew to review it,” Serpico said. “If it came in Friday afternoon for a Monday night meeting, how are you going to get it all done?”
The plans are “substantial,” Serpico said, noting that a new kitchen expansion has been added to the plans since Feb. 25.
“It’s a good project,” he said. “Every member of this board has said it’s a good project. But you’ve got to do it right. You don’t want to make mistakes.”
“We understand you don’t have enough time, but we didn’t know that,” McGillion said. “You didn’t tell us that … Nobody here remembers you saying that.”
McGillion and his attorney, Jules Rossi, left the meeting, but engineer Carolyn Feigin stayed behind to work out a schedule for turning in the plans again, as assistant planning and redevelopment officer Barbara Van Wagner said were incomplete.
Feigin can complete the plans by Wednesday, she said. The city officials tasked with reviewing the plans to prepare them for the planning board will need to complete their tasks by Friday so that the planning board can review the work over the weekend. The board meets again next Monday, March 18.
The board is required by state statute to vote on the plans by the end of the month. Otherwise, the applicant will need to apply for an extension.
McGillion hopes the first phase of construction — an outdoor bar adjacent to Johnny Mac’s — will be complete by summer, as originally planned, he said today. If the planning board approves the plans on Monday, he will still need approval from the city’s construction department to begin work.
