Broad Ripple Kilroy’s earns city support after changes

The city's planning staff has given its endorsement to a new Kilroy's Bar n' Grill in Broad Ripple after the owner agreed to scale back an outdoor seating area from 4,800 square feet to 2,000 square feet. An amended site plan filed Aug. 1 shows the smaller outdoor dining area would allow for the retention of nine additional parking spaces. The restaurant and bar plans to take the entire 7,750-square-foot building at 831 Broad Ripple Ave., now home to a Cardinal Fitness. Some neighbors have opposed the proposal, wary of another large bar and concerned the outdoor dining area would remove too many scarce parking spaces. The Kilroy's plan provides for 46 parking spaces, far fewer than the 119 required under the city's development standards. The new user, though, should not change the "intensity of automobile traffic" since most visitors in Broad Ripple "walk to multiple destinations," the planning department noted in its report. "The outdoor seating would be in character with the pedestrian friendly, village atmosphere of the area." The city's Board of Zoning Appeals is scheduled to vote on a variance request for Kilroy's on Aug. 16. An earlier post is here.

UPDATE: The entire planning staff report is here.

UPDATE II: Kilroy's pulled its variance request at the last minute but still plans to open a new location in Broad Ripple. They're using a grandfathered variance granted for another restaurant user in 1987 and referenced in the staff report above. Opponents of the plan who arrived at a public hearing were fuming.