Naked City

It ain't over till it's over, but the first reading of the Cedar Door's disputed zoning request to sell alcohol at its new Toomey Road location scored five winning votes from the City Council last week. It wasn't exactly a slam-dunk. No one seemed eager to make the motion for its approval, so Daryl Slusher finally offered one up, and Raul Alvarez kept it alive with a second. Danny Thomas voted no and Jackie Goodman was off the dais.

The zoning controversy pits neighbors against a cherished Austin institution, which has pulled up stakes and relocated three times to make room for new development. The bar is now at its fourth location, the Shady Grove RV Park, between Barton Springs and Toomey Rd. Landowner Susan Toomey Frost, who manages the property owned by the Toomey family since 1922, says she never realized the bar's presence would bring such disharmony to the eclectic neighborhood of trees, trailers and a popular macrobiotic restaurant, Casa de Luz.

Before the vote, residents of a neighboring trailer park spoke against the zoning change. Casa de Luz owner Eduardo Longoria, who had previously voiced his opposition, was not at the Thursday meeting. (The restaurant itself is in violation of parking laws -- a transgression that had gone unnoticed by city staff until the Cedar Door battle ensued.)

As for Toomey Frost, she believes her property is the ideal setting for the local landmark. From a bottom-line perspective, the rent money from the bar would help her pay her $48,000-a-year property tax bill, she notes. A self-proclaimed tree hugger, Toomey has thus far refused to sell the land to developers, who routinely call her with queries about the tract whenever the economy is frisky. "They wonder why it's full of trailers when they could just get rid of some trees and build a multi-use project," she said. Toomey acknowledges that that notion makes sense on many levels, but says that's not how she operates.

The council did not set a date for another required vote, so there's no telling when the Cedar Door matter will come up again. Given what she's experienced over the past five months, Toomey Frost admits she had been naïve about what it would take to secure the zoning for her favorite bar. "This is the first and only time I've gone through the development process," she said. "Now I understand what these developers have been whining about all these years."