On Monday night, The Planning Board approved a request that was made by the owners of The Range Bar & Grille to convert 1200 sq. ft. of existing storage space into a function room.  This is part of an overall development plan for the restaurant.

There were two conditions that went along with the approval.  The first pertained to flexing the maximum seating between the tavern space and the function area.  When an event is taking place within the 55-seat function space, an equal number of seats would need to be removed from the inside and outdoor tavern area in order to maintain the 136-seat maximum for the building.  That number was arrived at through calculations for Title V.  The seats would then need to be set aside and clearly marked as unusable.  The second was that the restaurant would be required to provide a list of dates and times of planned functions to the Building Department and the Board of Health on the Monday of each week any functions were scheduled.​

Jeff Tocchio of Drohan, Tocchio and Morgan was on hand to represent the owners, Old Derby Nominee Trust.  He assured the Board that barriers would be set up to separate the tavern space from the function area, and he noted that parking had been deemed sufficient by a traffic expert.  In fact, it “exceeded peak calculations,” and there were “plenty of overflow spaces.”​

Since all the work will be conducted on the interior, the Board granted the request to waive a site plan review.  “We should be encouraging all of our businesses to think about developing new spaces,” said Kevin Ellis who approved of the renovations.

“I think it’s going to be a good use of space,” said Gordon Carr. “Hopefully it will provide (The Range) some flexibility in the next 6 months to use this as restaurant space, and it will be useful space for graduation parties next spring.”

“Or maybe later this year,” quipped Jeff.

Planning Board members:

William C. Ramsey, Chairman

Gary Tondorf-Dick, Clerk

Gordon M. Carr

Judith Sneath

Kevin M. Ellis

The Planning Board can be reached at PlanningBoard@hingham-ma.gov.