Traffic study stalls Main Street bar and restaurant plans

Construction is seen in the 1500 block of Main Street in December. Development of the parcel is now on hold because of permitting delays and a required traffic study.

SARASOTA - Downtown patrons hungry for two new bars and a restauarant slated to open on Main Street will have to wait a few months longer, developers say.

Delays with city permits and a mandated traffic study for the slice of Main Street that is slated to house Paddy Wagon Irish Pub, Evie's bar and bowling alley and Taco Bus, a popular Tampa Bay-based chain, have halted construction. That has left property owner and developer, Jesse Biter, wondering if he will be able to open three new businesses on Main Street at all this year.

We can't continue construction until they finish the traffic study, Biter said. We were hoping to be open in April or May and now we'll be lucky if we get it done by the end of August.

Evie's owner, Mike Evanoff, said he had to move staff to his other area bars and restaurants because of the delays. The new Evie's bowling alley is large enough to employ 60 people, he said.

All of this is really discouraging, Evanoff said. It's embarrassing when I can't tell people when we're going to open because I have no clue when we're even going to be able to start building again.

The three new businesses submitted an application for building permits in October. Construction began at the site of the former hardware store on Main Street shortly after. The space is still an open shell and construction pit in between Orange and Lemon avenues.

When business owners applied for interior building permits to finish plumbing and concrete laying, city staff said that a traffic study must be conducted before any interior work could continue.

Our zoning code has specific requirements for when traffic studies are required, said David Smith, with the city's the transportation planning department. If the number of trips coming out of new development is more than one percent more than capacity, we have to do the study. That was true of these businesses.

Paddy Wagon, Taco Bus and Evie's had to split the $10,000-plus fees required to conduct the traffic study. The original price tag for the study was $13,000, but it was eventually revised.

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Traffic study stalls Main Street bar and restaurant plans