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Planning Commission OKs Burley Oak stage expansion

(April 20, 2017) The Berlin Planning Commission unanimously approved an expansion at Burley Oak Brewing Company last Wednesday, but not without some trepidation.
The Brewery will add a covered outdoor stage between the existing main building and an existing storage facility. According to site plan drawings, the front left stage support would be a tree, like the one in the Burley Oak logo.
Owner Bryan Brushmiller said he had spoken with the brewery’s neighbors on Old Ocean City Boulevard about potential noise concerns. During the five-plus years the brewery has been open, he’s had a good relationship with his neighbors and could not recall a noise complaint, Brushmiller said.
The brewery’s liquor license allows for music seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., according to Brushmiller. He agreed not to have music before noon on Sundays out of respect for nearby churches, and at the request of commission member Phyllis Purnell.
Part of the property would be cleaned up and covered in gravel to create new parking spaces, but no new paving would be done. The brewery would have a total of about 60 spaces.
No stormwater study was done, but the planning commission made that a contingency of the site plan approval.
Following the vote, commission member Rob Cascio said he was concerned about the lack of consideration for stormwater.
“I just don’t want any more coming to us [like that]. To me, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said.
Berlin Planning Director Dave Engelhart said a stormwater plan would ultimately be a consideration for permitting, and the commission had granted site plan approval under similar circumstances before, including the recently opened Arby’s and Royal Farms stores on Route 50.
“I just think it’s premature for us to approve a site plan without stormwater management in place – or a plan,” Cascio said. “It doesn’t seem right to me.”
“Duly noted,” Engelhart said.
Also during the meeting, the commission granted approval to Steve Black for a Shoreline Auto Sales steel pole building near Ocean Gateway and Seahawk Road, and to Palmer Gillis for Main Place, a new health care center on North Main Street.
The commission briefly discussed a design guidelines and standards document that has been in the works for several months. Engelhart offered to draft a document using suggestions offered when the commission reviewed similar plans approved by Worcester County and Ocean City during earlier meetings.
A motion to approve that was unanimous, and Engelhart said he would present a draft for review before the next commission meeting, May 10.