A hiccup in Stone House Tavern’s plans to keep their seasonal outdoor dining area arose during Monday’s Rochester Planning Board meeting. The Accord restaurant, which applied late last year to maintain its COVID-era space and build an additional parking lot, received a determination from the Rochester Code Enforcement Office (CEO) that its existing parking lot might not meet the fire code.

Stone House Tavern’s existing building model includes a fire exit pathway that skirts around several parking spaces. According to the planning board, the CEO would require the parking spaces to be demolished for a larger means of egress.

The International Building Code requires a “means of egress” pathway, i.e., an emergency escape route, to be at least 44 inches wide. At Monday’s meeting, Stone House Tavern’s representative argued that the applicants’ path was eight feet wide and therefore met code. The representative also expressed the applicants’ confusion as to why the critique was being made when the current parking model has existed for years and the restaurant’s expansion efforts have nothing to do with the existing parking lot.

“With this application, we're not changing the existing parking at all along the frontage that it comes up,” Stone House Tavern’s representative said.

One board member explained that when applicants make a proposal to the town, they open their property up to total review.

“So what you've done is you've opened the can of worms,” he joked.

The board’s legal counsel framed it a different way. Though his review and the town planner’s review determined the exit discharge acceptable, he said the CEO had final word on fire code.

“The board has the authority or the obligation to not give the site plan approval if there's an existing violation,” he said.

Planning Board Chairperson Marc Grasso specified that the board did not take sides on the matter.

“Regardless of our opinion,” he added to the counsel’s input. “We might all agree with you.”

The board advised the Stone House applicants to reach out to the CEO to find out more about the basis of the determination and what they could do to receive approval.

In other matters, Stone House's proposal addressed the checklist the board assigned at their first meeting in December. The restaurant’s newest proposal added permanent handicap accessible bathrooms to their hilltop plan and added a paved sidewalk connecting the building to the outdoor space. In addition, a noise study conducted concluded that any music or sound generated at the outdoor space met the decibel level required to maintain the peace of the surrounding area.

“I just want to preempt that you have been working really hard on this, and we appreciate that,” Grasso said to the applicants towards the beginning of the meeting.

Before opening a public hearing, however, the board agreed that the parking situation needed to be resolved. The Stone House applicants said they would reach out to the CEO and adjust their proposal accordingly, opening themselves up to the possibility of demolishing several parking spaces to meet the office’s standards. After receiving and reviewing revised maps of the restaurant’s proposal, the planning board will schedule a public hearing.