Settlement would allow Vinsetta Garage to raze homes for parking

In a blow to residents who live on streets behind the popular Vinsetta Garage in Berkley, restaurant co-owner Curt Catallo could be getting a late Christmas gift from the city.

Since the eatery's 2012 opening on Woodward Avenue, Catallo has fought the city of Berkley at meetings and in court to rezone residential homes and vacant lots he owns on two streets behind the restaurant so he can convert them into parking lots. Those dining at Vinsetta Garage currently have to valet park or find street parking.

Now it appears, Catallo — the restaurateur behind the Union Joints restaurant group — has won the battle over the parking lots, which were fiercely opposed by nearby residents.

More: Berkley delays vote in parking battle with Vinsetta Garage eatery

The Berkley City Council is expected to vote Monday night on a consent judgment reached in a 2017 lawsuit filed by Catallo that will allow the long-proposed parking lots and settle litigation. The council is also expected to vote on an amended agreement for the reconfiguration of and development of off-street parking at 1010-1046 Eaton.

“It gives a framework for resolving the issue,” said Berkley City Manager Matthew Baumgarten. “Ultimately, it has to be voted on by council Monday night.”

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Residents in the neighborhood aren't pleased.

“To choose instead further to destroy a neighborhood to accommodate a single business makes no long term or city planning sense,” Oxford Street resident Tara Hayes told the Free Press in an email. “Worse, the city asked us to trust them and assured us they would protect our community, our homes, our interests. We were promised they would continue to fight for residents and other small businesses.“

Catallo couldn't be reached by the Free Press for comment.

On Oxford Street, there are three vacant homes and a vacant lot west of Woodward on the north side of the street, behind the restaurant.

At a City Council meeting in 2016, Catallo, through his attorney, presented plans to demolish the homes he owns asking that those residential lots be rezoned to allow for parking lots. It was denied then as a similar plan was in 2014.

Catallo sued the city in 2017 in Oakland County Circuit Court, requesting invalidation of R-1D zoning of the property and monetary damages.

The consent judgment, if approved by the council, allows the parcels on Eaton and Oxford streets to be used for parking. On Eaton there will be 28 parking spaces and 26 on Oxford.

According to the consent judgment, Vinsetta Garage will have to put up a wall with a stamped pattern on both sides. They will also need to build a residential, single-family dwelling on two of the westernmost lots on Oxford.

Vinsetta Garage opened in 2012 in former vintage gas station and repair shop on Woodward, between 11 and 12 Mile roads. Inside, they’ve kept the auto-theme. Vinsetta’s menu is comfort food-based with big bowls of its signature mac and cheese, burgers, pasta bowls and pizza.

Catallo’s restaurant group, Union Joints, includes Clarkston Union, Gran Castor in Troy, Fenton Fire Hall, Honcho in Clarkston, Union General Store in Clarkston, Union Woodshop in Clarkston and Bunkhouse Burgers in Clarkston. The group is also developing properties in Birmingham, Oak Park, Ann Arbor and at Detroit’s Little Caesars headquarters at Woodward and Columbia.

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Contact food writer Susan Selasky at 313-222-6872. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.