Rudy’s return

CAPE ELIZABETH — Rudy's on the Cape will reopen Oct. 17 for a four-month stand before being torn down to make way for two new businesses.

Return of the popular eatery was announced during a Planning Board workshop Tuesday by Allie Welch, project manager for 517 Ocean House LLC, the firm owned by Running Tide Road resident Paul Woods, who bought the local landmark July 7.

Landscape architect Pat Carroll, of Portland-based Carroll and Associates, said Woods hopes to start construction in March on a 2,100-square-foot, 80-seat restaurant, with parking for 31 vehicles. Based on Woods' previous projects, Carroll said, the one-and-a-half story building will utilize modular construction, with pieces most likely built by Keiser Homes, located in Oxford. The intended look has been described by Carroll as a "contemporary seaside cottage."

However, while Carroll said in his first appearance before planners Sept. 6 that the new building would go up between Rudy's and Davis Point Lane, after which the original 2,600-square-foot building would be town down, the new plan calls for Rudy's to be demolished first, so the new restaurant can go up on its footprint. That, said Carroll, will free the 6,000 square feet between Rudy's and the side road to be split off for future development.

"The idea is that there may be a future use for that lot, although we're not sure what that might be yet," said Carroll, offering visions of a bank ATM or other "small, nondescript use."

"We're just trying to maximize the development use of the property," he said.

This new direction seemed to catch town officials by surprise. "We didn't know anything about this until tonight," said Town Planner Maureen O'Meara, after the meeting. Some board members seemed dubious of the proposal, especially given the small size of the new space, which most likely means customers of any business there may have to share use of Rudy's parking lot.

"Parking there is very tight now," said Planning Board Chairwoman Elaine Falender. "I'm just wondering about adding a second use on that same area. It'd have to be a very different use that didn't do a lunchtime business, a dinner business, or a breakfast business either. I'm skeptical about how that would work."

O'Meara said any construction on the new lot will require site plan review, but Falender feared allowing the split now without a definitive use in mind might make things messy down the road.

"I don't want to create the impression that we have in mind some use where shared parking is going to be stood idea," she said, "because I can't really think of one."

"I think it's a great site plan, if lot 1-B doesn't get developed," said board member Liza Quinn. "It'd be almost like a little park."

Carroll said the split-off spot will be loomed and seeded such that, at least initially, it will have a "park-like" appearance.

"It might be 10 years before a use comes along that's appropriate for that lot," said Carroll. "The owner is just trying to keep his options open."

Rudy's was built in the late 1950s as the Bagley Grocery Store, then run as a combination convenience store/diner, first by Rudy Gagnon for 30 years starting in 1963, and then by a succession of owners, ending with Mary Page, who raised hackles in 2008 when she lobbied the town for a license to serve beer and wine on premises.

One of those naysayers was Morris Kreitz, who lives across Route 77 from Rudy's. He complained at the time of "inevitable . . . inebriated patrons," writing, "No Cape Elizabeth neighborhood ought ever be mistaken for Old Port's Fore Street." Kreitz' concerns were mitigated during the three years ending last week when Chuck Barnes ran Rudy's, he says, but Tuesday's presentation raises fresh doubt.

"Nothing was suggested tonight that was contrary to the zoning regulations for the business district," he said, after the meeting, "but it seems to me inappropriate that this area, which is probably in the most rural part of Cape Elizabeth, has been picked for what seems like pretty intensive development.

"When I heard tonight that there's interest in creating yet a third parcel out of what was one parcel five years ago, it struck me as too much development for the neighborhood," said Kreitz.

Page carved off a part of Rudy's lot after buying it in 2003. That property was sold and a new mixed-use structure - a ground-floor business capped by four apartments - was built behind the store on Davis Point Lane. Because that happened more than five years ago, Woods can divide the property again without triggering subdivision review, O'Meara said.

The "BA" business zone referred to by Kreitz is a small district surrounding Rudy's, as well as one other small business on Shore Road. It was created, said O'Meara, in the wake of public furor over Page's liquor license, to enact very specific operating conditions, such as business hours and building setbacks. However, nothing in the zoning regulation can prevent Woods from splitting the lot and putting up two buildings. Carroll spoke of possibly dividing the lot, but building one "condo-ized" structure spanning the property line. If that happens, the 100-foot setback required in the BA zone would apply only to that part of the building housing a restaurant, said O'Meara.

While O'Meara suggested Woods might want to write things like sewer easements and parking rights into any new deed, if he sells off a section of the property, some on the Planning Board suggested simply reconfiguring the entire plan. Given frequent noise complaints from neighbors, it might be better, they said, if Woods were to position the new restaurant as far as possible from Davis Point Lane, where its screened-in deck is less likely to trigger a fresh round of emails to town hall. This also would put the parking lot between Rudy's and any new business at the corner, to better facilitate sharing, they said.

"Can we have the developer give us an option? Do we have any way of making them do that?" asked Josef Chalet.

"You can indicate that you strongly prefer that and look on it much more favorable than another option," said O'Meara. "Applicants like to minimize risk and they tend to take the path of least resistance, whenever that's reasonable."

In the end, the board made no demands on Carroll. They rarely do, said O'Meara after the meeting. It will fall to Carroll, she said, to take account of their workshop comments when submitting a formal plan.

Carroll said he expects that to happen in time for the board's November meeting.