Compromise reached on store's hours

SANDPOINT — Council members hope tea house and book store Common Knowledge will coexist peacefully with its neighbors with a decision reducing the intensity of its operations.  

After the Planning Commission approved a set of expansions over Common Knowledge’s legally non-conforming conditional use permit, a group of concerned neighbors headed up by Traci Higgins appealed the decision for fear of neighborhood disruption.

“None of the neighbors want to be on the phone with the police, they don’t want to make complaints and they definitely don’t want to be on bad terms with (Common Knowledge owner Shelby Rognstadt),” Higgins said.

Rognstadt and residents both made concessions in a conflict over a planned business expansion, but the City Council had the final word in the details.

The business’ permissible hours of operation are now from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Business deliveries must also occur within that time. In all cases, the closing hour means all business must cease, clean-up be complete and employees off the clock by that time.

The allowance for Common Knowledge to host live entertainment was also a chief concern of some neighbors, who wanted the tea house limited to unplugged, acoustic instruments. However, city officials and staff noted that some acoustic instruments like drums could be very loud on their own. Rather than limiting Rognstadt’s options for live entertainment, council members chose to set a limit of 70 decibels — the level of a typical conversation — at the property limits.

Neighbors also wanted to ensure the business retains its bookstore for its calming effect. To that end, they requested that 50 percent of the business space be devoted to the retail sale of books. However, council members softened the requirement to require a public hearing if the bookstore were to be eliminated.

Finally, all the changes established at the meeting will come under review two years from now in June of 2014.

The final set of alterations to the property’s conditional use permit stem largely from a meeting between Higgins and Rognstadt

. According to Higgins, Rognstadt’s most important conditions were the ability to serve beer and wine and permission to facilitate outdoor dining — conditions Higgins removed from her appeal. In turn, Rognstadt agreed to limit the business’ hours of operation to 8 p.m. on weekdays.

“Common Knowledge has had a good relationship with the neighborhood in the past and wants to make it even better,” Rognstadt said.