May 16, 2008

On Monday, May 12, 2008 the Village of Walton Zoning Board of Appeals granted the use variance for my distillery here in Walton. It's a big step forward. But what's a zoning variance and why did I need one? Walton is a pretty small village and it's somewhat divided into districts. One district is residential, which is where most people live. Another is industrial where you might expect more manufacturing kinds of businesses. There's also a general business district which encompasses our "downtown". So there's rules on where you can have certain kinds of businesses.

Here's a picture of the storefront at 144 Delaware Street I wanted to use. Pretty non-descript I know, but inside it's a nice space with lots of room for expansion.

The problem for me was this space is in the general business district where there's not supposed to be manufacturing, or distilling, and especially not distilling of beverages. So I needed to get permission from the local officials. And that meant public hearings and notifications in the local newspaper. And an environmental review will be needed to make sure I won't blow up the village or have people drunk on the streets from the fumes from my little 35 liter alembic.

Off I went to filing paperwork, canvassing local business owners for support, attending meetings, answering questions. Two months and four public meetings later I have the permission I need.

The building is from 1906 or so. A fine old brick building. They don't make them like this any longer.

It's really great to hear how excited people are that something like this will be happening in our little village. Of course, there's always a few naysayers, but what can you do? You have to have a positive attitude and keep moving forward.

Next is completing the funding, which was held up due to the zoning issues, followed by filing my Federal Distilled Spirits Plant (DSP) application.