The loose asphalt millings that form the parking lot at Red Point Taphouse can stay, but within a month, the brewery must either connect to town water or file for an exemption to the requirement.

That was the decision Smithfield’s Town Council handed down in a unanimous Oct. 2 vote on an application by brewery co-owners Tim Ryan, Derek Joyner and Nick Hess for relief from two conditions of Red Point’s 2020 rezoning.

Ryan told Smithfield’s Planning Commission last month that the partners had reluctantly agreed to, within two years of opening Red Point, pave the parking lot and to connect the circa-1929 former gas station on South Church Street to town water, not knowing at the time what it would cost. Ryan said he’d earlier this year received quotes of $9,000 to pave the parking lot and $31,000 to have town contractors extend the required 2-inch water connection to the business, asserting the combined $40,000 expense would eat up profits on the $609,000 in revenue Red Point took in last year.

Ryan told the Planning Commission in August, and the Town Council on Oct. 2, that he’d intended to seek special use permits that would permanently waive both the paving and water requirements, though town staff say Ryan only applied for a waiver of parking and loading requirements. The 30-day condition the Town Council attached to its approval of the parking waiver stays enforcement of the water requirement for that period. If and when the restaurant seeks another special use permit for permanent exemption from the required town water connection, that too will stay any enforcement by the town of what would otherwise be a zoning violation until the town acts on the proposed permit.

Town Attorney Bill Riddick, in August, said the private well serving Red Point and four neighboring houses predates the town’s annexation of the area. Town staff say the water connection is needed to meter sewer use at the brewery, which the town contends has been paying only a minimum unmetered fee to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, which serves as the town’s regional sewer provider.

Ryan said he’s negotiated separately with HRSD to in December add a meter to Red Point’s well water connection and begin paying for sewer based on the brewery’s metered water usage.

Ryan contends connecting to town water won’t make the business more profitable.

“It’s money that we would spend that would have no return for us,” he told the council.

The 30 days the council has given Ryan to either hook to town water or file for another special use permit to waive the connection requirement is a much narrower window than the two-year extension the Planning Commission had recommended in August.

A public hearing that preceded the vote drew two speakers in support of the waivers – Darren Cutler and Mary Ellen Bebermeyer – both of whom are among six candidates running for four available council seats in November’s election.

“I think the owners should be given some grace,” Cutler said.

Bebermeyer called Red Point “one of the most creative and innovative businesses on this side of South Church Street.”

When Vice Mayor Valerie Butler asked why a building that’s stood since 1929 was only now being required to connect to town water, Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary said the former gas station had been zoned as a residential office immediately prior to being rezoned in 2020 for its current use. The rezoning, Clary said, is what triggered the paving and water requirements.