Valerie Wencis
It’s been a year since a poster first appeared in the storefront window, announcing the imminent arrival of Butternut Bakehouse, a scratch bakery and cafe between Champions Sporting Goods and the recently closed Coco bubble tea shop in Belmont Center. With each passing season, the sign’s message has changed.
The promise of a May opening faded with spring flowers. Summer humidity fogged up the windows instead of steam from fresh-baked goods. Now, with the smell of autumn leaves in the air, an outdated placard proclaims Butternut will “open in September.”
Owner Suzana Samad told The Belmont Voice that delays from contractors and vendors are largely to blame for the protracted opening, but she said another reason is the town’s permitting process.
The story of the long-anticipated opening is a case study in why the town is now looking to streamline restaurant zoning bylaws at Special Town Meeting on Wednesday night.
Zoning Bylaws and the Butternut Bakehouse Delay
Belmont fans of Butternut Bakehouse’s first location in Arlington have eagerly awaited the Belmont Center arrival of Butternut classics like flakey morning buns, seasonal Danish, and a variety of sweet and savory croissants. The new location is much larger than its Arlington counterpart, seating 41, and will offer an expanded sandwich menu and additional lunch items.
Nobody is more anxious for the opening than owner Suzana Samad.
“I’m excited to start using those ovens,” she said.
But getting started in Belmont is taking longer than she thought.
Select Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Dionne said the town’s zoning bylaws have helped create an unfriendly environment for new businesses.
“Restaurants, I’ve heard horror stories,” said Dionne. She said town staff tries to make the process go as quickly as possible, but they’re stymied by complicated and even contradictory zoning bylaws.
“Every time someone thought they were at the end of the process, [they’d find out] we haven’t checked this box yet,” she said.
For example, there are currently four different categories for restaurants in Belmont, and the process is different based on where you set up shop.
Samad said as a bakery with counter service, she had requested zoning as a fast food restaurant, which requires a special permit in Belmont Center. That meant she had to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals, which took extra time.
Parking Pitfalls
Samad said parking regulations were another issue. The town requires a restaurant to have one designated parking spot available for every two seats. That’s twice as many as neighboring towns require.
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“The lot behind [Belmont Center] is so huge, so it feels like a ridiculous question,” Samad reflected.
But the town has to designate specific spots to a restaurant. Butternut initially only had five spots allocated. So, Samad had to apply for another special permit.
“The permitting process takes a long time, especially for a restaurant, because you have to get so many okays from so many departments in the town, and I know the people who approve all the permits are short-staffed,” said Belmont Center Business Association President Gerry Dickhaut.
He said it generally takes about five months for a restaurant to open, but for many, it’s longer. When he first opened Champions, he recalls, it only took him about a week.
“They just gave me a business, and that was 35 years ago,” he chuckled.
Streamlining Restaurant Bylaws
The Select Board asked Belmont’s Economic Development Committee and the Vision 21 Implementation Committee to review the town’s zoning bylaws.
The groups surveyed restaurants in the spring and found that the bloated regulations were creating a burden.
Belmont currently has four different types of restaurant designations, and the rules for opening them are different, depending on their location, since the town has three different local business districts.
“It’s hard for you to understand whether you’re a takeout restaurant, fast food restaurant, or just a regular restaurant,” said Economic Development Committee Chair Paul Joy. There’s also a fourth category for catering.
“It can be very complicated for you to move through the process the town has set up for opening a restaurant,” he said.
Economic Development Committee Secretary Wendy Etkind said Belmont’s current restaurant definitions are difficult to interpret, even for town staff.
“We’re trying to make that formula more defined and make a more streamlined process,” she said.
The groups also found that the town’s parking requirements caused delays in opening.
“No one was ever denied a permit due to not meeting the parking requirements,” Etkind said.
However, it did slow down the process and caused more work for the town.
“That sent our committee into a discussion as to whether we could eliminate [parking regulations] completely,” she said. Instead, the committee proposed reducing the parking requirements from one spot for every two seats to one spot for every four seats.
Town Meeting to Weigh In
Special Town Meeting will consider at least one warrant article based on the groups’ recommendations.
The article would amend the zoning bylaws to reduce the number of restaurant categories from four to two, and it would apply the same rules to restaurants, no matter where they are located in town.
The new categories would be: food service establishment or food service establishment, formula based.
According to Dionne, the new definitions are standard and clear: “Either you’re a small, non-chain restaurant or what we’re calling a formula based restaurant.”
The formula based, or chain restaurant, would need a special permit when opening anywhere in Belmont. All other restaurants would not.
The Select Board had planned to put forth another warrant article at Special Town Meeting this month that would reduce the parking requirement for restaurants. However, that issue is expected to be pushed to the regular Town Meeting in the spring.
Etkind said a major reason they’re trying to facilitate the opening of restaurants is that “restaurants bring in revenue — so that’s incoming and recurring income for the town.”
Currently, only about 4% of Belmont’s tax revenue comes from non-residential sources. Neighboring towns Lexington and Watertown collect 20% and 35% in non-residential tax, respectively. Other towns get revenue from office parks, hotels and other businesses that Belmont doesn’t have. So restaurants are only part of the equation.
Bakery Wave Hits Belmont
Another high-end bakery and cafe opened in Belmont this summer in Waverly Square.
“Somebody told us within our first week of opening that this is the best thing that’s happened to Belmont in 40 years,” said Shawna Cortes, cafe manager of the Tatte Bakery & Cafe on Trapelo Road.
The Belmont Tatte is the chain’s 38th location. Cortes said the company has openings “down to a science,” usually taking about three months, but that they experienced some delays in Belmont.
General Manager Audrey Donovan said the opening was delayed by about a month, partially due to permitting issues. She also said they had originally planned to move into the old CVS in Belmont Center, but isn’t sure why the corporate office decided to move the location.
For her part, Samad hopes her restaurant will open in time for people to pick up Thanksgiving treats, though doesn’t have a specific target date. Regardless, she says, the wait will be worth it.
“There’s nothing like walking into a bakery with the smell of baked goods,” she said. She equates that sugary smell with a warm hug; something that’s reassuring as soon as you open the door.
Samad will split her time between the two locations and said her nine-minute commute to the Belmont bakery was a big factor in choosing that location. She noted the benefits of the Belmont community and being located in a suburb while also having close proximity to Cambridge and the surrounding towns.
“A community bakery really has the power to transform you emotionally — it brings so much joy to people,” she said, noting that she still feels this way each day coming to work. “It just smells so good. I’m so amazed every time … I’m looking forward to putting out good food and good service to the community.”
In the next part of our series, Serious Business, we report on businesses leaving the Center, including Trinktisch, whose owners cite pandemic fall-out, staffing woes and “irreconcilable differences” with their landlord for shutting down at the end of the year.
