BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

MASSENA -- The St. Lawrence County Planning Board has recommended conditional approval for a project that would convert a 19th century gristmill at 38 Water Street in a brewpub.

GoCo Ventures LLC, owned by William and Susan Fiacco, are planning to put a microbrewery in the basement, a bar/restaurant on the ground floor and two apartments on the second floor with two bedrooms each.

Matilda Larson, a planner from the St. Lawrence County Planning Department, said the board’s concerns were mostly centered on parking and signage. She said the local code in Massena has a formula that calls for 37 spaces for the capacity of 118 in the dining area plus another 30 bar seats.

She said there is an area to the east of the building that could accommodate the parking needs, but it’s not clear if that will be the purpose for the space, or if it will be used for dumpsters or storing snow in the winter.

“We asked them to revise the site plan to incorporate those types of elements,” Larson said. “We did note there were a number of parking leases being arranged on neighboring properties in the vicinity.”

She said the Planning Board also recommended having a crosswalk painted from the other side of Water Street, where the lots are located, to the pub.

A site plan document from the county additionally suggests the village amend their code to incorporate microbreweries for the purpose of zoning. The document says the current code isn’t clear on whether or not that’s permissible with the current zoning laws.

“Alternatively, the Village Zoning Board of Appeals could be asked to offer an interpretation as to whether existing [zoning] uses allow for micro-breweries; or, a use variance be sought and granted,” the document reads.

Larson said if the business opens with the total occupancy of 148, it would be one of the biggest of its type in the county.

“This will be one of the larger establishments when it comes into operation. It’s going to be a big one,” she said.

In 2018, the Village of Massena announced they and GoCo Ventures had entered into a “public-private partnership” that would garner GoCo a $978,000 grant from the Restore NY program to help get the business going. At the time of the announcement, the village said the total project cost was around $1.4 million and they had anticipated it would be complete sometime in 2019.

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