By Brian Trompeter
A proposal to allow a Vienna baseball coaching-and-training facility to expand its facilities received the Vienna Planning Commission’s unanimous support June 12.
Renee Pippin, owner of Pitchers Edge LLC, has applied for a conditional-use permit to allow the business, located at 516 Mill St., N.E., to be expanded to an adjacent space at 514 Mill St., N.E.
Such specialized instruction is considered a conditional use under the town’s newly adopted building code, and a permit is needed for the expansion. The Vienna Board of Zoning Appeals will decide whether to grant the conditional-use permit following a July 17 public hearing.
The expansion would allow for a safer, more efficient facility for clients and staff, said Vienna Deputy Planning and Zoning Director Kelly O’Brien.
The site, located in the Mill District industrial zone, has abundant parking, she said.
The business, which is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, works by appointment only, so clients must pre-schedule their visits, O’Brien said. Most of the time, only two clients and three employees will be on site, with one client and one coach on each of the two pitching lanes and a third employee in the office.
“Thank you for locating your business in town,” Planning Commission member David Miller told Pippin. “I think this is exactly what I like to see on Mill Street.”
“It does some like a really great use for that part of town and it doesn’t seem like it will have any impact on traffic,” agreed Planning Commission Chairman Jessica Plowgian, adding she had no concerns about the application.
Planning Commission member Stephen Kenney, who disclosed his own children had been among the Pitchers Edge’s clientele, inquired whether the applicant planning to remove the wall and connect the spaces.
The applicant has not applied for a permit to remove the wall, town staff said. Pippin said the landlord told her taking out the wall was an option, but she was not sure what that would entail.
