Falmouth town officials want to see The Barn at Smith Farm restrict its patrons from parking along Route 100, an issue that restaurant owner Molly Ritzo thought at been resolved. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
A Falmouth restaurant is at risk of being denied an entertainment license because of a dispute with the town over parking on a busy road.
Patrons of The Barn at Old Smith Farm continue to pose safety concerns by parking their vehicles along Route 100, say town officials, who want the problem addressed before issuing the venue an entertainment license.
The owner of the seasonal restaurant and event space, however, thought the parking situation had been resolved last year, and felt blindsided to learn it will be brought up again at a Town Council meeting Monday when her special amusement permit is up for approval.
In a memo to the council, Town Manager Nathan Poore recommended rejecting the permit unless parking along the street, also known as Gray Road, is prohibited or – at the least – restricted.
Through its social media accounts, the restaurant put out a call for customers to come to the 7 p.m. council meeting Monday to support approving the license, which allows for bands to play, one of the main attractions of dinner at the seasonal restaurant, which also features fire pits and lawn games.
“This will be a hard blow for our restaurant and our customers,” the Facebook post said. “The Barn has become a neighborhood favorite for friends and families to meet and our light dinner music is enjoyed by everyone. We have worked extra hard to provide music as a backdrop to our dinner service.”
Concerns about the parking situation at The Barn first arose last summer, when Poore – while on a ride-along with a police officer – noticed that cars parked on Route 100 were blocking people who were leaving the restaurant from being able to see oncoming traffic and were forcing pedestrians to walk dangerously close to the road.
Soon after, on July 20 of last year, the Maine Department of Transportation reached out to Poore, recommending that the town restrict on-street parking around the restaurant.
“We immediately met with Molly (Ritzo), the owner, and we were able to get temporary no-parking signs up,” Poore said. Those signs kept cars from parking where they would create a blind turn at the restaurant’s exit, and it appeared that “the immediate safety concern had been temporarily resolved,” Poore wrote in his recent memo to the council.
This seemed like the end of the parking troubles to Ritzo as well.
“I basically thought it had gone away. We did what they asked; the signs were there,” she said.
So, Ritzo was surprised when she heard that police Chief John Kilbride had submitted a letter to the council expressing ongoing concern. Kilbride also included a traffic report that showed, on a Tuesday in June, more than 900 cars generally traveling at 45-55 mph had passed the restaurant from 6-8 p.m., when live music often occurs.
With her entertainment license now in question, Ritzo feels like there has been a lack of communication from the town between last summer and now.
A lack of parking at The Barn at Smith Farm in Falmouth has led to patrons parking along Route 100. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
“I didn’t realize this was still a brewing issue for them,” Ritzo said. “If they have a problem with on-street parking, let’s address that and work with that. But, crunching our entertainment license … that’s just hurting business.”
Poore said Ritzo had not been in compliance with the restrictions agreed upon last summer until Thursday, after his memo went out, when she again blocked off parking near the exit.
“But before (Thursday), we were looking at a situation where (Ritzo) was not doing what we had talked about, so we had to take a harder position,” he said.
His memo to the council also notes that The Barn was offering special entertainment and prepared food without proper licenses last summer and let its liquor license expire in October, which the state has allowed a grace period for compliance.
In the short term, Poore hopes at least to keep the dangerous exit blocked off and to restrict parking on the south side of business, where a guardrail encroaches on space and makes it unsafe for pedestrians to walk alongside parked cars.
Long-term solutions are in the works as well. Last week, Ritzo met with the town’s traffic engineer, Tom Errico, to discuss future remedies. Both Ritzo and Poore described the conversation as productive and say they want to work toward a solution.
“There’s a reason why this is a problem. It’s because (Ritzo) has a great business, and we really want to see that continue. But at the same time, it’s our obligation to make sure that people are safe,” Poore said.
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