Mount Airy?s Main Street will return to the look and feel of the downtowns of old, rebounding from the Sept. 2 blaze that devoured two historic buildings and destroyed seven businesses.
Town planning commissioners compromised Monday night, forging forward by approving plans to set the razed Bohn building?s replacement 20 feet off the sidewalk.
Chairs, tables and plants will decorate the outdoor courtyard created by the setback, which will join an adjacent building with a cafe and retail stores, set back 30 feet.
The setback had been a point of contention for a week, until the commissioners stepped onto the lot where the building stood for 80 years ? and approved the project without reviewing all the usual plans, including those for lighting and landscaping.
The approval is critical to small-business owners who need community support to survive, said Dalia Schulman, head of the Mount Airy Main Street Association.
“People don?t know what it takes to run a small business ? courage, guts, stupidity ? we don?t know,” Schulman said.
She sent a letter to the commission last week,pleading that members move forward with a setback of 15 to 20 feet.
“Given the negative economic consequences and the damage to our town pride that any delay may cause, it is imperative that this decision not be delayed,” she wrote.
The staggered setbacks give each building?s stores their own space and character, business owners said.
Commissioner Ken Estabrook said pleas to speed the process changed his mind, after he had pushed for a 30-foot setback last week.
The facade to the neighboring Watkins building damaged by the fire is held up with poles, and officials say it will also need to be torn down and rebuilt.
The plans will next go to the county and town council for approval.
Meantime, the businesses destroyed by the fire will reopen in a temporary a business park in four to six weeks now that the county has funded the project?s $82,000 cost.
Five pods similar to school portables will be put at a lot next to the train station on Main Street. All businesses except for the two restaurants involved in the fire will move there until the buildings can be restored, Mayor Frank Johnson said.
