A local architect is applying to change the former Capitol Hill Arts Center building's official use from “automotive sales and service to restaurant and performance arts assembly.” Although the building has contained a diner, bar, and theater for years, the "change of use" is now subject to public comment and review.

It turns out that—despite CHAC using the building since 2002—the owners, including the current owner Elizabeth Linke, never completed the application process to register the building for assembly.

"We had a series of permits over the past 10 years ... but [the owner and tenants] never actually completed the work or received their final inspection," says Bryan Stevens, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Planning and Development. "The permits they received had expired." The last completed inspection occurred in 1917, he says, when the building was an auto-repair shop.

Eric Koch, a principal at Partners Architectural Design Group who is working on the owner's behalf, says, “When the owner went in for a permit for seismic upgrade, [the city] didn’t find the use on file for restaurant or performance space.” He adds, “She definitely had no idea this was coming at her.”

But the review wasn’t triggered by a seismic upgrade, the city says.

“We don’t typically know that these illegal uses are out there unless someone complains,” says Stevens. “And that is what happened last year—someone complained.” That neighbor, no doubt, will be commenting to the city about those invasive restaurants and performance spaces, and you can too: over here.

Photo via Creative Traffic on Flickr.