The Bloomington City Council voted in favor of Ordinance 15-07, approving an expansion of the BBQ Train located on the corner of East 10th Street and Smith Road at Wednesday night’s meeting.
The council voted 5-2 in favor of the ordinance with councilmembers Dorothy Granger and Steve Volan absent from the meeting. The regular session was immediately followed by a Committee of the Whole to discuss Resolution 15-13, an enterprise zone investment deduction for a property located on 531 N. College Ave., which was discussed but not voted on.
Planned Unit Development regulates neighborhood zones in Bloomington. After passing Ordinance 15-07, BBQ can add additional seating with the amendment of the PUD.
The BBQ Train smokes meat three or four days a week, according to Chris Smith, a proprietor from the BBQ Train and Short Stop Food Mart, for its once-a-week operation of business. Smith said he wants to expand to have a small indoor seating area.
“All I wanted was some indoor seating,” Smith said. “Our goal is not to be a restaurant with a hundred seats. We aren’t going to become Cheddar’s overnight, it’s not going to happen. We are a neighborhood-serving convenience store that’s just trying to serve good food in a food island.”
The issue at stake centered around the smoke the BBQ Train causes to a nearby neighborhood. The concerns about the ordinance came from the West family in a neighborhood near the BBQ Train that wrote to the City Council with concerns about the smoke.
Smith said he had been working on his barbecue business’s efficiency.
“I can’t give you some hard fact about whether it has increased or decreased,” Smith said about the smoke. “I can tell you that I think we have already decreased it quite a bit in just the last two years just by our techniques alone.”
Pat Shay, development services manager with the Bloomington Planning and Transportation Department, said the city already has ordinances that deal with smoke, saying the issue here is the expansion of indoor seating. According to the plan commission, the expansion won’t increase the amount of smoke.
Hank West, who said his wife has a lung-related health issue, said the smoke from the BBQ Train is potentially affecting his family’s health.
“I understand that, if y’all end up voting for him today,” West said. “I can’t blame you a bit because it’s about business and it’s about employing people. I really, really, really think the smoke needs to be addressed, and I just wish someone would realize that.”
Councilmember Marty Spechler voted “no” on the ordinance, but tried to offer a compromise. Spechler said he would vote “no,” citing public health reasons, but said if Smith resubmitted his petition after adding a indoor smoker, then he would vote “yes.”
“People don’t always agree with compromises, but they are the way of the world,” Spechler said. “We have to live together.”
