2007 Brings Changes!

I met with the CSU Wastewater engineers today and they quickly informed me that we will be required to install a 1000 gallon grease interceptor out in the parking lot. Yikes, just what I was hoping to not hear. They were not very interested in what we will be doing in the shop (ie, no cooking, no deep fat fryers, etc), and they were especially not interested in the fact that our budget will not allow this $40,000 to $50,000 expense. After talking with them some more and desperately trying to establish some kind of rapport with them, they finally decided to listen to me. I asked if there are any other possibilities as far as a work around or variance would be concerned. If not, I told them they need to leave because I need to go file for bankruptcy...
They asked to speak in private for a few minutes, then came back and said if we delete our sanitizer (hi-temp dishwasher) that they would allow an indoor grease trap! Whoo-hoo... game on again... They are writing up a variance, along with the requirements we will have to follow to keep the variance. Those prayers I said while they were deciding whether to work with us or to crush us worked! I' glad God is on our side!

I then met with our architect, and he stated that El Paso County just adopted a new code book that changed the calcualation for establishing occupancy. For a restaurant, you get one person of occupancy for every 15 square foot of accessible customer space. The studio is one per 100 sq ft, the bar/kitchen area is one per 200 sq ft, storage is one per 300, and the bathrooms and halls don't count. When applying these numbers to the layout I did, we came up with an occupancy rating of approximately 70. THIS is bad! At 50 or higher, we would need multiple stall bathrooms, dual UL rated fire doors that have to be separated by more distance than our entire storefront width, less four feet. The door separation distance is calculated by taking half of our longest diagonal line drawn through our space. Our space is 40'x50', therefore, half our diagonal is 32'. Our existing doors are 19' feet apart. In order to meet this requirement, we would have to reconfigure our entire storefront, as well as purchase new UL fire rated doors. Modifying the store front and buying doors would cost about $15,000. The expanded bathrooms would wreak havoc on our layout, and be very expensive. So instead, it was back to the drawing board. I developed a new layout that meets the occupancy criteria!! It reduces our available seating area significantly, but I guess that is better than a new storefront and new bathrooms...

Here is the new layout. I have completed all of the equipment layout on paper, but have not finished transferring it to soft copy. The main thing is that it works for occupancy, meets all code requirements, and will meet our needs for operating a coffee shop. The photo studio is a little oddly shaped, but I can arrange my studio lights, subject, and camera location with no problems.

Now, a little side note. Vic, our architect, indicated that we could build the shop per this layout, and tear down a wall at a later date in the future to add more seating. The storage room in the front right corner will become additional seating if needed. We would just demo the wall adjacent to the existing seating area, and keep the door to the studio locked. The very small storage space at the bottom right of the studio will actually be a small dressing room so people can change clothes during a photo shoot.

Well it is getting late and I'm tired.
Here is what I have completed of the layout so far on soft copy: