VILLAGE OF MANLIUS – On Aug. 8, the Village of Manlius Board of Trustees was informed that Hospitality Restaurant Group is planning to significantly change its proposal to develop the former fire station site off Stickley Drive into a Taco Bell restaurant.

The new plan will involve reutilizing the existing fire station rather than tearing it down.

Hospitality Restaurant Group previously approached the village board with the desire to demolish the fire station and construct a drive-through Taco Bell in its place.

Located behind Chase Bank and in front of the Village of Manlius Recreation Building, the property was owned by the village for many years and zoned as municipal.

After it was sold a few years ago to David and Louis Muraco of Empire Management of CNY, Inc., no formal process was carried out to change its zoning designation. Therefore, the village board must take legal action to establish a zone for the now-private property. The question is whether to designate the property as Commercial (C) or Commercial 1 (C1).

As the village law currently stands, zone C does not allow drive-through service at restaurants. In a C1 zone, drive-throughs are permitted upon the issuance of a special use permit.

To accommodate its proposed drive-through, Hospitality Restaurant Group requested that the site be designated C1. The zone change application was submitted to the village at the start of this year.

The village board held a public hearing regarding the rezoning of the property on June 13. The application was then sent to Onondaga County for comments.

During the Aug. 8 meeting, Matt Napierala, P.E., of Napierala Consulting, requested that the village board table its vote on the proposed zone change to allow the developer time to submit a new application for consideration.

Representing the interest of the owner and developer, Napierala explained that the decision to amend the proposal was made in response to input from the board, individuals, and the county.

“We’d like to change our proposal from a teardown and rebuild with one type of a drive-through building [to] reutilizing the existing structure, revamping that structure, and providing a new scheme, essentially, for the development,” he said. “We think this is a significant change in what the proposal has been up to this point in time. . . I did have a brief conversation with [Codes/Zoning Official Mike] Decker earlier today, and he agrees that because it is such a significant change, we should really look at a new application, a new review process, a new SEQR, and get back to the county because, frankly, the county comments dealt specifically with, ‘Can you guys reuse the building?’ We think we can.”

Mike McCracken, director of asset development with Hospitality Restaurant Group, then discussed how the fire station might be transformed into a “Taco Bell Cantina,” a “hybrid” establishment that would incorporate both a drive-through and a 65-seat sit-down restaurant.

McCracken said the cantina concept mix could be 50 percent drive-through and 50 percent dine-in, or even 40 percent drive-through and 60 percent dine-in, so it would alleviate some of the drive-through traffic.

Extra space in the front of the building could be used for gatherings like private birthday parties, little league gatherings and private meetings.

According to McCracken, the large upstairs conference room could initially be used to host Hospitality Restaurant Group meetings a few times a month. When not being used for that purpose, it could potentially be made available as some sort of community room during certain hours.

“That’s something we are open to talking about,” McCracken said. “That initially would be what we would use it for. . . We wouldn’t have to sink a lot of money in there right away until maybe such time that there was [another] interest, whether it be residential or some other type of commercial use up there.”

McCracken said the new proposal calls for replacing the front garage doors with more modern-looking glass doors with better-insulated windows. In the summertime, those doors could be lifted to provide the restaurant with indoor/outdoor seating.

“This cantina concept has a cornhole plan on one side, they have a huge Connect 4 board, it’s more family-oriented, [and] it has a different product mix, so it’s a completely different offering than what we had proposed before,” McCracken said. “Before, it was a very small, quick service restaurant with an 80-20 mix — 80 percent drive-through, 20 percent dine-in. This is a whole different animal. We are working on some renderings and some elevations; it’s going to leave the building looking pretty close to what it is today.”

The village board agreed to table the issue until its September meeting to allow the applicant time to prepare graphics, update its site plan, gather more information, and meet with Decker to determine whether the potential proposed uses for the property would meet the requirements of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) district.

According to Village Attorney Brad Hunt, drive-throughs at restaurants are allowed within PUDs with permission from the village board and planning board.

In other news

At the beginning of the meeting, Whorrall swore in Jeremy Clawson, Cait Barnwell, Zack Whalen, Jonathan Bloom, and Anthony Gallerani as Manlius Fire Department’s newest full-time career firefighters.

Later in the meeting, Whorrall announced that a committee has been formed and started meeting to coordinate the 2023 Swan Fest, which is scheduled for Oct. 1.

So far, the event is expected to feature artists, food, a band on Wesley St. organized by the Rollin’ Rust and A.W. Wander, rock painting and other activities for kids, and more. Additional details to follow in the coming weeks.

Manlius Village Board meetings begin at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month in the Manlius Village Centre Board Room, 1 Arkie Albanese Avenue, Manlius.