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Catonsville Times
03/08/07By Marcia Ames

Plan to tap property's potential hits snag


Craig Witzke said his search for restaurant tenants for his Frederick Road property has been hampered by a state law denying a liquor license within 300 feet of a church.
Craig Witzke wants to spice up Catonsville's restaurant scene with a dose of Mexican food, but says his plan needs a liquor license to succeed.
Unfortunately for the Catonsville developer, unless the state lifts its prohibition against selling alcohol within 300 feet of a church in Baltimore County, he has a snowball's chance south of the border in getting such a license.
Witzke is proposing a restaurant for the former Muir Hardware store property he owns at 929 Frederick Road.
That site, though, is near the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, at 905 Frederick Road.
Although he hasn't polled the church's members, Witzke said he realizes the law would override their possible support for such a plan.
The county has no leeway in enforcing the law in question other than to exempt a business whose liquor license predates the legislation, said Gerard Kilduff, chief inspector, deputy administrator and a 20-year veteran of the county's Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Witzke refused to say whether or how he might challenge the restriction.
But he has raised the issue on his blog, whatsgoingoncatonsville.blogspot.com, which he initiated in February to engage Catonsville residents in his plans to redevelop the Muir store site.
Witzke's A & A Enterprises company bought 929 Frederick Road in August 2006 for $1.3 million, according to state tax records.
The purchase also included two houses around the corner, at 9 and 11 Newburg Ave., with backyards that extend behind the former hardware store and could be used for parking.
He intends to retain all three buildings, which are more than a century old, "rather than destroying what we have," he said.
Several people have asked about the possibility of opening a restaurant at the former hardware store, he said, and some restaurant owners have contacted him as well.
"We've got good restaurants here already that people like to go to, but the public, I believe, deserves more choices," he said, noting a dearth of Mexican fare.
He believes an additional restaurant would benefit those other destinations in town.
"Having a group of restaurants attracts people to the area," Witzke said.
"Then they can choose which restaurant they're going to when they get there."
Because he plans to use the existing store building, the "F" level-of-service grade proposed this year for Frederick Road's intersection with Bloomsbury and Ingleside avenues, less than a mile away, poses no threat, he said.
If the County Council confirms the F later this spring, as the Planning Board and Department of Public Works have recommended, the failing grade will result in a moratorium on building permits for most development.
But Witzke won't need any building permits to renovate his property, he said.
Only the liquor license, or lack of one, stands in his way, he said.
To suggest other uses for 929 Frederick Road, go to Witzke's Web page, whatsgoingoncatonsville.blogspot.com.