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Portsmouth planners endorse scaled-back farm brewery plans

Ragged Island goes before zoning board on Thursday, Aug. 20

By Jim McGaw
Posted 8/14/20

PORTSMOUTH — The Planning Board Wednesday night voted unanimously to grant a favorable advisory opinion for Ragged Island Brewing Co.’s scaled-back plans for a farm brewery on …

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Portsmouth planners endorse scaled-back farm brewery plans

Ragged Island goes before zoning board on Thursday, Aug. 20

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The Planning Board Wednesday night voted unanimously to grant a favorable advisory opinion for Ragged Island Brewing Co.’s scaled-back plans for a farm brewery on Bristol Ferry Road.

The petitioner, Donovan Gray Distributing, will go before the Zoning Board of Review on Thursday, Aug. 20, to seek formal approval of its plan, which has changed since it was initially passed by zoners in April 2019.

That proposal included the construction of a new, modern 9,335-square-foot building for brewing operations and seasonal taproom. Mainly due to the pandemic, new construction has since been scrapped, and Ragged Island now seeks to renovate an existing barn for use as the taproom instead. 

The company plans on growing hops and other ingredients at the 37-acre parcel previously owned by the Van Hof family at 54 Bristol Ferry Road. The brewery currently operates out of the Portsmouth Business Park on High Point Avenue, but last month received zoning board approval to hold a limited number of outdoor beer gardens from Friday to Sunday at the farm.

Matt Gray, owner and operator of Ragged Island Brewing, said he’s proposing what amounts to a lesser use of the property compared to what had already been approved.

“We were trying to bite off a little more than we could chew early on,” he told the Planning Board during the virtual meeting. “It will allow for the growth that we need but without the expense of new construction at this time. This will remove the new construction element altogether and keep more open space on the property while pursuing our goal of hosting a brewery on our farm.”

The existing barn offers 3,600 square feet of space, compared to the brewery’s current facility of 2,400 square feet.

“This would be a facelift for this building. It has never had any repair work done to it,” Mr. Gray said. “Our goal is to completely reclaim this barn and make it a completely different building in a way.” 

The building will be cleaned up and turned into a brewing unit, with new doors, new garage doors, new windows, a bathroom installed and a cupola placed on top, he said.

“In hopes the future is brighter,” Ragged Island plans to use the same septic plan that it filed previously, even though it’s bigger than what is currently needed, Mr. Gray said.

No members of the public spoke during the meeting. 

The Planning Board voted unanimously to make a favorable advisory opinion to the zoning board, stipulating that the Portsmouth Fire Department reviews to plans for the building and that all previous site conditions and approvals are still in effect — including previously approved landscaping buffers to appease abutters.

Zoning board on Aug. 20

The Design Review Board, on Aug 3, also gave Ragged Island a favorable opinion on its new plans, saying it had met the criteria for the site plan, building façade, landscaping, lighting, and signage.

The brewery will bring both favorable opinions to the zoning board when it seeks approval of the revised plan at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20.

To access the meeting by phone, dial: 1-888-788-0099. Once prompted for the meeting ID, dial 810-7212-4202 #. Once prompted for a participant ID, members of the public should then dial #.

To access the meeting online, go to https://livestream.portsmouthri.com/zoning.

For more information, visit www.portsmouthri.com/232/Zoning-Board-of-Review.

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.