By Gigi Wood
IOWA CITY – The Red Avocado,521 E. Washington St., a restaurant that serves organic vegetarian and vegan entrees, is a tenant in one of three buildings that will be torn down to make way for a mixed-use building.
The building that houses the restaurant andDefunct Bookswill be among those torn down, including the Golden Haug Bed & Breakfast next door. The Haugs, who owned both buildings, recently sold and are moving the bed and breakfast to Manistique, on the upper peninsula ofMichigan.
The Washington Street properties were sold and the new owner, Allen Homes, plans to raze the buildings and construct a mixed-use building on the site. A petition against the demolition is circulating online at www.change.org/petitions/save-the-red-avocado.
Those against the change have few avenues to protest it. Bob Miklo, senior planner for the city ofIowa City, said the properties are zoned CB-12, which allows for mixed-uses, so there will be no hearings through the planning and zoning level. The proposed site plan for the project needs to receive approval from the building department to get a building permit.
Mr. Miklo said the properties, which are in the middle of the block, have been zoned CB-12 for 30 years. The zone allows for first-floor commercial and residential or commercial on upper floors.
“The property recently changed hands and the new owner proposes to take the three buildings down and build a new mixed-use building within the requirements of the current zone,” he said. “And I believe they do have a site plan that they submitted to the building department which is required for the permit approval. There is no zoning action required by the planning and zoning commission or the city council.”
The properties are not protected by historic preservation rules, either.
“There was consideration a number of years ago to down-zone that property to either a MU, mixed-use zone or a neighborhood commercial zone and the city council at the time declined to pursue that rezoning,” Mr Miklo said. “There was also a proposal to include it in the historic preservation district in 2002 and because of neighborhood property owner objections, that was not approved. So anything that’s being proposed there meets the current zoning and the zoning that’s been in place for a number of decades.”
The buildings are scheduled for demolition Jan. 29. Dave Burt, a co-owner of the Red Avocado, said the business learned of the demolition Dec. 30 and does not plan to relocate.
“Relocating is like opening a new restaurant,” he said. “It’s just bad timing. We were hoping for another year. We knew something was going on. We knew the buildings were sold, etc. We were hoping for another year so we could generate some revenue so we could plan for a move. But that was not to happen. It was fast. It’s a roller coaster.”
The Red Avocado owners were notified of the demolition the Friday of New Year’s Eve weekend. It wasn’t until Jan. 3, after the bank and federal holidays had ended, that they could consult attorneys about the matter.
Mr. Burt said he knows there is nothing his business can do legally to stop the project, but he hopes the petition will help.
“I don’t know what power the city has, but I bet if the city got 2,000 or 3,000 signatures they could do something, I really don’t know,” he said. “We’re really just looking for people power just to get the voice out, if nothing else.”
The city plans to issue a memo on the property issue in its Jan. 5 city council packet, which will be made available this afternoon on the city’s web site, www.icgov.org.
