The Froyo saga has ended, or has it?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Frogpond LLC was just denied their special permits. I hope they look for a home in other surrounding squares. It was an exciting hearing for something like frozen yogurt!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Comments

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Brief, as I am still at the hearing. :)

[ron_newman]

On what basis did they deny the permit?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

It was in fact denied on viability. There were enough concerns about demand, specialty items, and density of services that they enacted a clause that I was not even aware of that actually DOES deal with viability in a geographic area.

[ron_newman]

I did not realize they could take that into account. I hope your permit is approved!

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

It was Ron! Thanks :) I was the last one before everyone ran off to avoid the snow!

[georgy.livejournal.com]

Now we wait for Orange Leaf to atrophy naturally then all will be well in the Davis Square frozen yogurt world.

[ron_newman]

According to the Somerville News, Orange Leaf is having a 'Grand Opening' event this Saturday, November 10, from 11 am to 11 pm -- even though they've already been open for a week and a half. The News article says "There will be face painting, prizes and giveaways. They will be giving away 25 free 8oz cups of Froyo every two hours starting at 11 a.m. "

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

A Grand Opening does not usually coincide with the actual opening, because most places need a bit of time to make sure everything is going smoothly before inviting the world in to party. Doing a grand opening event on the very first day you're open is kinda asking for trouble.

[ron_newman]

I just got one of their leaflets in my mailbox, advertising the grand opening and including a 20% off coupon. Oddly, it just says "Local Postal Customer" where my street address should be.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

You'd think they would do from 11 to 11 on 11/11.

[ron_newman]

Did anyone speak in opposition to Pinkberry at the ZBA hearing, or did the ZBA decide to vote no on their own? In particular, did anyone from iYo or Orange Leaf speak against it?

The petition advertised in the previous post would not have impressed them much, with its 19 signatures.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

The owner of iYo, who spoke against it in the last hearing with several reasons, spoke again this time as well. Most of the reasons were addressed by the pinkberry law rep and possible franchise owner (accessibility being a big one, they were going to widen the entryway amongst other things) The building manager of the storefront they wanted to move in to spoke for them in their favor, understandeably. Things I was unimpressed by: The owner of iYo saying that he did iYo "For fun" as he and his partner have other occupations. I think it came out wrong, but it sounded dismissive of the business. The ZBA grilling the owner of iYo about whether or not he was a resident of Somerville (he is not, but was for many years, and still owns property here) the franchise owner for Pinkberry is a Central Square resident, for the record. Again, this became a pretty heated hearing at times, I never know that frozen yogurt was so controversial.

[ron_newman]

Thank you! This is the kind of detailed reporting we rarely get from our local media.

I hope your hearing was more boring ;-)

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Well, I trust the media to be a bit more unbiased than I am, but I'm not under obligation :) Seeing as there were about 20 people in the hall at that point, and 12 left after Froyo-pocalypse, and 4 were for myself (2 being for some parking issue having to do with the market basket on Somerville Ave and the Ames Envelope Factory space) it was excitedly uneventful and passed without a hitch.

[nurrynur.livejournal.com]

iYo/Orange Leaf : the new Somerville rivalry! Forget Ball Sq Cafe vs Soundbites...

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update.
I hope that things get to move forward for *your* business, which will be a great addition to the area :)

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm very excited, and really only have my Certificate of Occupancy to do, which should hopefully be fairly easy due to the fact I've done no construction! Just signage and paint :) Open house to be on 12/2!

[ron_newman]

Somerville Patch published this article about the froyo war,which doesn't yet include the result of last night's ZBA hearing. I left a comment there pointing to your post here.

The Patch article says that the owner of iYo delayed Orange Leaf's opening by at least a month, by complaining that the ZBA had issued Orange Leaf's permit to the wrong street address.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I am bothered that it says that pinkberry is a chain. While it is a chain, this would be a locally owned franchise that employs local people. I'm also bothered that iYo, which has great products and services seems to find it necessary to be nitpicky about everyone else's business.

[ron_newman]

You may want to drop a line to chris.orchard@patch.com , who wrote the Patch article (and is the editor of Somerville Patch).

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Were I not getting ready to jump on a plane in 2 hours, I'll see what I can do :)

[teko.livejournal.com]

From the looks of the permits, the owner of iYo was correct. The ZBA seems to have switched the street addresses several times for the actual location of Orange Leaf.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

The opening wouldn't have been delayed if it was untrue. After dealing with the ZBA quite a bit lately, I wish they had slightly better communication with other departments/proofreading myself.

[ron_newman]

The confusion probably started when 'Davis Square Plaza' was created way back when, with storefronts that open onto it instead of onto Elm Street. I never knew those places had Elm Street addresses.

[ron_newman]

Chris Orchard updated his Patch story, adding this paragraph to the top:

"According to planning staff with the Zoning Board of Appeals, Pinkberry withdrew its application at the Board's meeting Wednesday night. It seems the Board was not inclined to grant permission to the frozen yogurt giant, so Pinkberry withdrew its application before it was officially denied."

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much it. They were told straight out it was going to be denied, so they withdrew. There were a lot of strong opinions on the subject, some of them not very well founded. Several board members thought that they had as much a right as any other business to try to be successful, but with the naysayers the vote would not have been complete.

[ron_newman]

I think that if you withdraw your application, it preserves some rights that you lose if you go to a vote and are denied.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I believe it means that they can apply to go into another address in Somerville, which I hope they do.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I withdrew a petition with the ZBA years ago to rezone my apartment building and doing so meant I wasn't bound by the rules around how long I had to wait to file again. A "tactical withdrawal" as we used to say in the Army.