Brewery Pursues Deck Construction

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak Island Brewery is moving up in the world – literally expanding up into a second level.

The owner, Ben Millstein, is looking into installing a deck above the covered entryway.

To do that, Millstein needs to increase off-street parking requirements and to do that he needs to go through the Planning and Zoning Commission.

P & Z talked about a possible land use variance at its regular meeting Wednesday.

According to code, Millstein is required to increase off-street parking with the additional 750 square feet of deck, but he can’t conform to the minimum number of required parking spaces. The parking lot can only fit an extra three spots as opposed to the required 13 extra.

So, he pursued a variance to lower the minimum number of parking spots he would need to move forward on construction.

During the meeting, Millstein described what the deck might look like.

“My thought was to block off part of the covered area and put another door into that so that people would have to come into the brewery, and then there would be a second doorway that they could go out to access that outside area, and that would all be fenced off.”

P & Z agreed to allow the added three spots instead of the 13, especially since Kodiak’s parking requirements tend to be stricter than in other communities.