Hanover
The Burlington-based creperie chain last month canceled a benefit concert after town officials informed the owners that local ordinances did not allow cover charges.
Co-owner Jonny Adler filed an appeal on Friday, arguing that staging such a show would comply with the zoning ordinance and that Hanover officials’ decision could undermine the livelihoods of musicians.
“From the standpoint of what is right and moral, we feel strongly that musicians provide an essential and beloved service to our lives and deserve to be paid their market rate for it,” he said in the seven-page appeal. “… The town of Hanover should not stand in the way of their ability to make a living or of their full pursuit of happiness without very clear, objective evidence that doing so is a violation of some existing ordinance.”
In a letter dated June 22, Hanover Zoning Administrator Judith Brotman told Adler’s brother and business partner, Benji Adler, that he would need to appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment before putting on his concert.
The town’s ordinance is “permissive,” she wrote, meaning that whatever is not explicitly mentioned in regulations is not allowed — including charging a cover.
“As we have discussed, the performance of music as an accessory use to a restaurant is allowed within certain limited parameters,” she said. “However, the type of performance you are advertising appears to be greater than what has been customarily approved here in Hanover, and therefore is not allowed.”
The owners of the Skinny Pancake canceled the concert, a performance of the Burlington pop and dance-rock band Madailathat would have benefited the nonprofit Vital Communities, and circulated an online petition calling for a change in Hanover’s practices.
This is not the first time that restaurant owners have clashed with town officials over the issue of live music.
In 2003, John Chapin, owner of the Canoe Club, won an appeal to the Zoning Board of a decision that denied his business the right to host live music.
Chapin’s victory set a precedent for restaurants that allowed others, such as Salt hill Pub, to introduce their own performances, according to Janet Rebman, executive director of the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I think it took some time and some conversation,” she said in a Wednesday interview. “I believe the barrier he broke through allowed music in town.”
Rebman said that Hanover, as a community, was open to live music, and cast the zoning dispute as a natural part of the discussion and debate that precedes change in New England towns.
“I don’t think that’s uncommon in New England when you’re doing something that hasn’t been done yet,” she said. “New England likes to have a process where you think something and talk about it when you haven’t done it yet.”
Soon after the cancellation of Skinny Pancake’s concert, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin explained that the cover charge was regarded as a departure from the Canoe Club precedent.
The practice of charging a cover, she said, expanded the restaurant’s shows beyond an “accessory use,” which is permitted, and made the business more like a concert venue, which requires special permission from the Zoning Board.
But Adler, in his appeal, argued the restaurant does not seek a significant change to its operations, and that the Skinny Pancake does not even make money from cover-charge concerts.
“If we were changing our use, there would have been some demonstrable thing that changed,” he said in an interview Wednesday, citing as examples the restaurant’s floor layout and business model, all of which he said remained the same.
To support his contention that holding an occasional concert did not change the nature of his business, Adler cited his other restaurants, which, despite holding events with cover, have roughly the same distributions of revenue as the Hanover location — 87 percent from food and 13 percent from alcohol.
The restaurant’s philosophy centers on all things local, Adler said — food, art, music and community — making fundraisers like this concert a way to give back, he said, and not necessarily to make profits.
“Using music to raise money is really powerful, and if you can’t charge a cover, it does get in the way of our ability to do that,” he said. “That’s why we decided it was important enough to really want to take this on.”
The next regularly scheduled hearing of the Hanover Zoning Board is July 28, and the Skinny Pancake case may be heard then, Brotman said.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.