Doors at the Sagebrush Cantina will remain open, for now.
Owner Dia Zaraga was given a Feb. 28 deadline to submit paperwork obtaining the necessary building permits to keep his restaurant open.
He met the deadline, but Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel said some aspects of the submitted contract need correction.
Van Tassel said it looks like Zaraga is doing his best to comply and he has until Thursday to correct the contract.
According to a letter issued on Feb. 20 by Zaraga’s attorney, the contract with the current builder, Butcher & Baecker Construction Co., Inc. has been terminated.
Zaraga is in the process of taking over the building permit from Butcher & Baecker.
‘There has to be someone who holds the permit and is responsible for making sure that the zoning matters are satisfied and, if its not Butcher and Baecker, then it needs to be someone else, whether it’s another builder or an alternative,? Village Attorney Gary Dovre said.
Under Dovre’s suggestion, the village council set a deadline for completing the paperwork for building permits for Feb. 28.
According to Village Manager JoAnn Van Tassel, who has been in communication with Zaraga all week, he is aware of the deadline and the consequences of not meeting it.
‘He loses his conditional temporary certificate of occupancy, he loses his liquor license,? Van Tassel said.
‘Mr. Zaraga has been informed of that, so there should be no confusion on his part,? she added.
Faced with the threat of closed doors, neither Zaraga nor Van Tassel think it will come to that.
According to Van Tassel, Zaraga is applying for the building permits in his name. In order for him to do so, there are some additional steps that need to be taken.
‘Since Mr. Zaraga is not a licensed builder, he must supply us with licensed names that are going to do the electrical and plumbing work,? Van Tassel said.
This deadline comes in on the heels of another approaching deadline affecting the conditional temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO).
The original certificate, which was issued in Nov. 2006, signed by Zaraga on behalf of Sagebrush Cantina indicated that they anticipated everything that still needed to be done would be within 90 days. According to Van Tassel, the 90-day date was Feb. 19, yet not all the conditions had been met.
As such, the Village Council extended the deadline through the month of February.
‘The site plan needs to be brought into conformity to what was built, and there are physical improvements that need to be done,? Van Tassel said.
Now that Zaraga has control of the needed paperwork, he and the council must agree on
an addendum to the original TCO, which would allow for more time for these items to be completed.
According to paperwork submitted by SA&A Architects on behalf of Sagebrush, a completion date of May 31 is recommended for most of the remaining items.
Village Attorney Gary Dovre recommended that if the council is happy with the conditions, they should extend the conditional temporary certificate of occupancy to June 7, which gives seven days following the completion dates offered by SA&A Architects. At that point, no more extensions would be offered without action.
‘If the deadline that is set by the council is still not met, then we are not going to do any additional extensions without action at that point in time,? Dovre said. ‘If [the conditions] weren’t done and this is put into place, any further extensions would have to be accompanied by a performance guarantee under the ordinance.?
Once the building permit issue is worked out and an addendum to the original TCO signed, Van Tassel hopes all the issues will finally be taken care of.
‘The Village regrets that it has taken this kind of turn as we had hoped that things would open smoothly,? Van Tassel said. ‘Hopefully, everything will get worked out and he can get his certificate of occupancy.?