Despite strong opposition from some Hampden residents, Baltimore’s zoning board voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to approve a restaurant operator’s request to offer live entertainment seven days a week.The request came from Titan Hospitality Group, which wants to provide live entertainment at The Barn & Lodge, a restaurant and event space it’s planning to open at The Rotunda, 711 West 40th St.The Hampden Community Council (HCC) has opposed Titan’s plans for live entertainment at The Rotunda, and so has the area’s City Council representative, Odette Ramos. The HCC has scheduled a community meeting for Wednesday, Oct. 9, to discuss the project, the zoning board’s decision and possible next steps.The zoning board heard testimony about Titan’s application during a public hearing on Sept. 3. When panel members were unable to reach a decision right away, they scheduled a second meeting on Oct. 1 for deliberations but no more public testimony, and their vote of approval came at that meeting.  Under Baltimore City rules, interested parties have 10 days to request clarification or reconsideration by the zoning board regarding one of its decisions once it issues a written resolution about it, and they have 30 days after the resolution is issued to file an appeal to the Baltimore City Circuit Court.  The residents who oppose Titan’s plan say they fear that if live entertainment is permitted, sounds from the establishment will disrupt residents of the surrounding area late at night and that the crowds it draws will cause traffic and parking problems.The building where The Barn & Lodge will be at The Rotunda. Photo by Ed Gunts.They argue that The Rotunda shopping center, though zoned for commercial use, borders quiet residential streets and isn’t an appropriate place for an establishment offering live entertainment seven nights a week. They note that The Rotunda already has an outdoor concert series called “Rotunda Rocks” every Friday from May to September and a Farmers’ Market on Tuesdays that also has live music. They say they’re afraid The Barn & Lodge is a thinly-disguised banquet hall that will bring noise and crowds to the area all year long.“We love restaurants, but this project will simply not work in this space,” states a petition against the project, signed by more than 75 Hampden residents. “We are extremely concerned about the effect this venue would have on our community and on our ability to continue to live, work and play without significant nuisance caused by traffic and late-night noise.”The Rotunda isn’t known for its night life, and people who live nearby “do not wish to have live music and entertainment entering their homes and bedrooms at any hour, much less until 1 a.m. or later,” testified Blaise Ahearn, an executive board member of the community council, at the Sept. 3 hearing.Houses on Elm AvenueThe majority owner of The Rotunda is MCB Real Estate, the owner of Harborplace at Pratt and Light streets and other commercial centers around Baltimore. MCB Real Estate has been working with Titan on plans to convert a former “boiler room” structure on the 11-acre Rotunda property to a restaurant and event space for more than 200 people, with a covered outdoor patio on one side for dozens more. The freestanding boiler room building and patio are on the western edge of the Rotunda property, less than 100 feet from a row of houses in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue.Titan, based in Crofton, Maryland, sought approval from the zoning board because live entertainment is a conditional use in a C-2 zone, where the event space will be, and its request triggered the public hearings. The city’s liquor board granted a Class “B” restaurant license earlier this year for the Barn & Lodge project, but the license as approved does not allow Titan to offer live entertainment because it wasn’t permitted by the zoning board at that point.The HCC has engaged Community Law Center senior staff attorney Shana Roth-Gormley to be its legal representative and advisor in the Barn & Lodge dispute. Opponents point to a decision in which the zoning board turned down a request for live entertainment in connection with a proposed food and beverage operation in the 4000 block of Falls Road, after nearby residents opposed that application on the grounds that it would have an adverse impact on nearby residents.Opposition to Titan’s plan is coming from more than Hampden. Residents of Roland Park Place, an upscale retirement community across West 40th Street from The Rotunda, have voiced concerns about the project, with resident and former Baltimore Magazine editor and general manager Stan Heuisler keeping his neighbors informed. Some tenants of the ICON Residences at The Rotunda apartment building at 727 W. 40th St. have raised questions about how it will affect them. During a meeting of the Roland Park Civic League last week, president Tom Hoen said his organization supports the HCC in its opposition to live entertainment for the Barn & Lodge operation, and sent a letter in September saying so.Houses in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue, across the street from The Rotunda. Photo by Ed Gunts.Heuisler noted in an email message to Baltimore Fishbowl that Roland Park Place is a constant care retirement community, located next to Keswick Multi-Care. “Both our communities are insulted by the ageism and community disrespect shown by developers who initially tried to sneak in without meeting us and, after community meetings began, broke off negotiations,” he wrote.“The concept of loud music until 1 am, six days a week, across the street from our high rise health communities is simply an invasive public health issue, and if allowed to continue will be met by our inhabitants’ vigorous, constant and consistent legal challenges, and police complaints and perhaps picketing,” he continued. “The neighborhood’s residents, retired senior citizens, and those with health concerns cannot ignore this threat to our sleep, health, well-being; and increased traffic, parking and public safety concerns for those health care workers serving our communities.”“This is a helluva mess and somebody in the city should step in,” he added in a separate message.Separate event spaceTitan’s plans call for The Barn & Lodge to include a “traditional dining room” with about 100 seats; two 14-seat private dining rooms; a “private events space” for about 100 people, and a covered outdoor space with about 73 seats.Titan was represented at the zoning board meeting by Drew Tildon, an associate attorney with Rosenberg Martin Greenberg.  Headed by managing partner Caroline Hecker, the law firm is working with MCB Real Estate in its efforts to obtain city support and voter approval for its $500 million plan to raze the Harborplace pavilions and redevelop the area.At the Sept. 3 zoning board hearing, Tildon spent much of her time reminding the board members what they can and cannot do, in accordance with local laws. She also stressed Titan’s track record in other parts of the state, its proposed investment at The Rotunda, and the number of jobs it would create. She said The Barn & Lodge represents a capital investment of more than $4 million and will create 75 jobs, eight of which will be salaried. A Titan principal, James King, said it is a $7 million investment.Hampden residents told the board that they became wary of Titan because the company and its lawyer would not initially meet with them to discuss their plans. Titan only agreed to meet with community residents, they said, after Ramos intervened on their behalf.Tildon told the zoning board members she initially didn’t schedule a meeting with Hampden residents because she didn’t think it was necessary for her clients to do so. Tildon said she thought that because the project would be on the grounds of a shopping center, she and her clients weren’t obligated to meet with anyone outside its boundaries.Tildon also said that because The Rotunda already had live music two days a week, she didn’t think more live entertainment would be an issue. She said it’s usually her policy to reach out to applicable neighborhood associations when a client is submitting an application to the zoning board. “But given the fact that this is in the Rotunda shopping center where there are already two uniquely live music events that are actually outdoors, it just, it didn’t cross our minds,” she said.A 2021 graduate of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and a protégé of Hecker, Tildon apologized at the zoning board hearing for not meeting with Hampden residents until Ramos intervened, and said she is the one to blame. “It is, frankly, mea culpa,” she said. “I should have reached out.”Limiting hoursAt the Oct. 1 meeting, chair James Fields, who often speaks first and sets the tone for the rest of the panel, said he supported Titan’s application and didn’t see any reason why live entertainment would be a problem. He noted that residents are concerned about the business’s impact on ongoing sewer issues in the area but he said he didn’t have reason to believe live entertainment at The Barn & Lodge would make conditions worse.“In my view, the establishment, operation, maintenance of the conditional use, being live entertainment at that location, would not be detrimental to public health, safety and welfare,” Fields said. “I don’t believe the authorization would be contrary to public interest” or would have “adverse impact…with respect to the location.”The west side (Elm Avenue side) of the building where the Barn & Lodge project is proposed. Photo by Ed Gunts.After Fields spoke, three more members voted to allow live entertainment as a conditional use of the property. Before voting, the commissioners said they wanted to limit the hours that Titan could offer live entertainment.Titan had asked for permission to provide live entertainment in its private events space during the same hours the restaurant is open, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday to Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. The zoning board members said they wanted live entertainment to end by 11 p.m. on weeknights, Sunday to Thursday, but would allow live entertainment until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. They imposed no other restrictions.Zoning commissioner David Marcozzi said he was comfortable approving Titan’s request as long as it doesn’t offer live entertainment on its outdoor patio, sticks to the agreed-upon hours and stays within the city’s legal limits regarding decibel levels. Commissioner Victor Clark said he was “in agreement with all that was said” by the previous speakers, including the suggestion to limit hours for live entertainment on weeknights..Panel member Elizabeth Cornish offered a detailed explanation for her vote, saying that that applicant has demonstrated a “proven track record of success” and technical expertise in operating restaurants and event spaces elsewhere and that the project will activate a building that has been dormant for a long time. “That definitely plays in my favor,” she said.Cornish said she wanted to be respectful of the community’s concerns and desire “to have the neighborhood maintain a certain feel or have a certain use, but our job is really to apply a standard that says: would it be more harmful than a similar use somewhere else?”She said concerned residents will have ways to make sure The Barn & Lodge follows the law once it opens. “There are mechanisms for holding business owners accountable,” she said. “I continue to urge you all to work with your councilperson. Work within the noise ordinance, and then you start to build that relationship that will continue to create positive results over time.”Baltimore’s zoning board, minus board member Leland Shelton, who abstained from a hearing on whether the proposed The Barn & Lodge restaurant and events space at The Rotunda should be allowed to have live entertainment. Photo by Ed Gunts.One abstentionThe five-member zoning panel cast only four votes because its fifth member, Leland Shelton, serves on MCB Real Estate’s board and abstained from voting. Shelton stepped away from the panel and sat in the audience during the Barn & Lodge hearing on Sept. 3 but sat silently with the panel during its deliberations about Titan’s application on Oct. 1.If the zoning board’s ruling stands, Titan will have to apply to the city’s liquor board for permission to amend the liquor license it was granted earlier this year, in order to offer live entertainment. That would give opponents another chance to challenge the project.The community meeting is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at St. Luke’s Church on the Avenue, 800 W. 36th Street.