A Burr Ridge spin studio is one step away from reality despite concerns being raised about parking in the proposed fitness center’s location.
Spin Bar, an indoor cycling experience, is looking to set up shop in County Line Square, a plaza already having parking issues due to Capri Ristorante and other eateries. Spin Bar would require 19 parking spaces (one space per three people based on a maximum occupancy of 50, plus three employee spots). That’s nine more parking spots than the interior design store, Brandy’s of Burr Ridge, that had been at 124-126 Burr Ridge Parkway. The design store has moved to the Burr Ridge Village Center.
Robert Garber, owner of County Line Square, has proposed to reconfigure the plaza parking lot to add 26 spaces — 11 behind the building, five by relocating the curb and replacing landscaping at the northeast corner of the lot, and 10 by removing the existing island in the middle of the eastern parking area. However, the plaza is still 12 spots short of requirements based on Spin Bar and the existing plaza tenants.
Despite the plaza’s continued parking deficiency, members of the village’s Planning Commission gave their unanimous approval Monday to Spin Bar as a permitted use in the shopping center. Fitness centers are not listed as a permitted use in village shopping districts. The proposal to establish the fitness center in County Line Square now goes before the Village Board on Monday.
“I remember a time in yesteryear when you could shoot off a cannon (in the shopping center) and not hit a car,” said Plan Commission member Robert Grela. “Thank God that has changed.”
However, with the Plan Commission and Village Board last winter providing a parking exemption for Capri to expand and now being asked to allow Spin Bar to skirt the parking requirements as well, members made it clear their benevolence is running thin.
“It is a unique situation. It has uses there now that were not conceived of 30 years ago,” Grela told Jim O’Brien, the attorney representing County Line Square in its parking exemption request. “It is great that we have this condition. But Mr. Garber is in very tenuous territory. This is the second dip into the well that he is asking for. We don’t want to see you here again.”
O’Brien said one of the problems is that the plaza is landlocked.
“It is a fluid situation,” O’Brien said. “As tenants change, uses change. Mr. Garber has said he will always target those businesses which are attractive to residents and don’t pose parking problems.”
To alleviate some of the plaza’s parking issues, Capri employees are parking in the nearby Pace Suburban Bus Service lot after 5 p.m. That lot is also being used for Capri’s valet service.
Susan Grant, owner of Spin Bar, expects many of the fitness center’s clients to be in classes early in the morning, before other businesses in the center open. She said the 5:30 or 6 a.m. (depending on the day) and 8:45 a.m. classes will be the peak use times during the week. The 8:30 and 10 a.m. classes will generate the most traffic on the weekends, she said. The facility will be open 365 days a year.
“There will also be classes at 5:30 and 6:30 at night,” Grant said, “Those classes typically are about half-full.”
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She said she wants to give back to the community through charity events and the CycleGiving program.
After spending 14 years in sales and marketing for Pearson Education, Grant said she turned her passion for indoor cycling into a career.
Commission member Luisa Hoch wanted the parking lot changes to be done prior to Cycle Bar being allowed to open. However, with the weather beginning to turn, her fellow commission members questioned if that was a realistic expectation. The commission stipulated that the parking lot improvements need to be completed by June 1.
Owners of the plaza were also told that because of the existing parking deficit no snow could be piled up in any spots during the winter. Keeping parking spots in business areas clear of snow is already required under village ordinance, but commission members questioned whether it should be stipulated in their proposed approval of the parking variation for Spin Bar.
“That is slippery slope,” member Mike Stratis said. “We would then have to do it for all applications.”
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.