Planning board asks: What is oHHo?

By JEFF MORRIS 

For the third time in six months, the planning board has granted a temporary site plan extension to oHHo Botanicals “for the continued use of an outdoor pizza oven in connection with a previously approved café and retail establishment.” 

The extension came after a discussion that lasted an hour and a half.

The business, located at 34 Village Green in the former Bedford Village firehouse, has transformed from what was originally a high-quality CBD retailer at its original location on Court Road, to a boutique, café and purveyor of gourmet coffees. The portable pizza oven, operated by Pizza Girls NY, was brought in as a way of augmenting the café’s offerings while restricted by the limitations of a lack of septic capacity in Bedford Village. That limitation prevents oHHo from having a kitchen or any food preparation facilities. 

Joseph Thompson, the architect representing oHHo, noted they had received a one-month approval extension last time, and were hoping for a more substantial extension that might last into the summer months. He said the pizza oven was an essential part of the business, and patrons of the business really love the pizza oven and “the life it has brought to downtown.”

In response to questions raised previously by the board, he said they had contacted the chief of the Bedford Fire Department, who took “no further exceptions to the burn ban being eliminated, since the building department had reviewed and approved the use of the pizza oven” and found it was applicable to state and local guidelines.

Thompson said other questions had been raised about the Westchester County Department of Health’s review of water usage, for a more permanent indoor application they would like to pursue for construction of the pizza oven indoors as part of the café use. He said there were problems coming up with accurate data, partially because of a water meter that was replaced, and partly because of increased water usage attributed to installation of new landscaping on the former driveway area, now used as a dining patio. 

Getting closer to the crux of the board’s concerns, Thompson said they had also submitted a description of all the events that were hosted during the 2024 calendar year. He said most of them were consistent with the retail use of the store. “We believe that the majority of those events are all consistent with the general retail use,” he said. “The occupancy limits have generally been abided by.”

Chairwoman Deirdre Courtney-Batson said she wanted to make it clear that “part of the concern here is figuring out exactly what business this business is.” She said part of the job of the board is making sure that the laws of the town are taken care of in an equitable manner, so that “if it is a café, it should act like a café; if it is a restaurant, it should meet the requirements of a restaurant.” She pointed out that in some of the submitted written materials, there seems to be some confusion about that. “Even the fact you’ve said that the pizza oven, which was not a part of the original application before us, is now an essential part of the business,” said Courtney-Batson.

Concerns had been raised by the board at its December meeting regarding a series of events held at the business, with questions about whether there had been some with a charity paying a fee to use the premises. Courtney-Batson had suggested that events for hire would be outside the purview of what was approved.

The atmosphere at the December meeting was decidedly different in the absence of business owner Nicola Stephenson, who was out of town and not on hand to answer questions. Stephenson was present this week, and offered explanations and assurances about the scope of oHHo’s operation and intentions.

Though it was not a public hearing, comments from the public were permitted, and a dozen people spoke both in person and via Zoom in what amounted to a veritable lovefest for oHHo. 

Many of those who spoke were other Bedford Village business owners, and all expressed how grateful they were for a sense of vitality that the presence of oHHo has brought to the village green, and how increased retail traffic and vibrancy have spread to all the neighboring establishments. Those who spoke and entered comments on Zoom were universally opposed to the town imposing any limitations on oHHo, even in the face of parking challenges that can result for all of them with the popularity of some events.

Nonetheless, the board continued to press Stephenson on a number of aspects of the operation, including her future plans. They questioned how many people could attend various events, noting most of those held during the day had about 15 attendees, while some of those in the evening had larger numbers. Thompson asserted they had not exceeded the occupancy limit, which he said was 67 people. A larger number had attended during some events held partially outdoors.

Stephenson said they would like the opportunity to ask for approval when there was an event that they anticipated would draw a larger number of people.

Courtney-Batson said she worried due to the number of times she’d heard neighbors complaining to each other because everything had “gone too far.” “It would be a shame for something that started with such internal goodwill to begin to fall apart for lack of planning,” she said.

“That’s a great point,” said board member Diane Lewis, who addressed Stephenson. “You’re doing this wonderfully, but that’s not always the case. We have to figure out the rules so that you can continue to do this wonderfully, but that each business that comes before us either gets permitted to do that or not. And you’re in an unusual position and an unusual business.”

“I’m not getting a good sense of how realistic you’re being about things,” added Courtney-Batson, continuing to address Stephenson, “Because when you made the presentation about the number of events, you talked about how few there were. You really didn’t think you had much of anything happening for the first half of 2025. But now I’m getting the impression that any kind of a limitation is going to feel like a serious limitation.” That’s OK, she added, but if the expectation is for three or four big events in a six month period, “we would like to know that up front.”

Planning Director Jesica Youngblood interjected that Stephenson had originally stated this was to be a “concept store,” and she was trying to be flexible. She said it would be helpful to the board if she told them about any conceptual or business changes that were being considered.

“I think the point of a concept store is, it’s changing all the time,” said Stephenson, and that’s what you need to do retail well. She cited examples of attempts to accommodate people whose needs changed at the last minute, and said she had no interest in overly flooding the space with events that are against the nature of the store, but “I would just hate to limit our imagination of what we could do in town this year.” 

There was considerably more discussion involving possible occupancy numbers that would be acceptable during the day and at night, occupancy numbers for the café versus the retail space, and whether occupancy limits are even appropriate. Board member Nilus Klingel remarked that a lot of the restrictions were based on a business classification that is dependent on the Department of Health, and that the classification could be changed. Courtney-Batson said she thought it was acceptable to set some kind of limits, and Lewis suggested 35 people in the daytime, and 60 people plus staff on the weekends or evenings, both at eight events a month, as a good place to start. Stephenson said that was acceptable to her.

“I want to make it clear to everybody that events were actually never part of this original application,” said Courtney-Batson. “So if we’re seeming to be a little bit cautious of it, it’s because we tend to like to know what we’re approving when we approve something.” She cautioned that when things are going beautifully, as they are in this case, it’s easy to not think they could be anything else. “But there are other places in town where it certainly is something else.”

The board voted to extend the six-month allowance of the pizza oven, with the limits on gatherings and requests for additional approval if something comes up.