New Haven Independent

That’s how Toad’s Attorney Jim Segaloff plans to celebrate if the city gives its final approval to the downtown music venue’s proposal to open a rooftop deck for smokers.

Over the objections of Yale, the roof deck idea got an OK from the City Plan Commission on Wednesday night. The matter still needs the approval of the Board of Zoning appeals, which will vote on the issue in September.

Toad’s hopes to open a 500-square-foot roof deck, with room for 40 people and 22 seats. Clubgoers would be able to bring their alcoholic drinks to the roof, where they could smoke and order sodas and coffee, cappuccino, and espresso, but not alcohol.

The Toad’s proposal came before the City Plan Commission in July, but was tabled. Then Yale weighed in, in the form of a letter of opposition. A roof deck will encourage smoking, and butts will rain down on the sidewalk, Yale predicted.

But on Wednesday night, City Plan commissioners granted their approval to the roof deck approval with little discussion.

The advisory report from the City Plan department noted that although the rooftop area will likely “increase clientele at the club,” it will not have a significant impact on parking or traffic in the area. Concerns about the act of smoking are “only indirectly related to the zoning issue at hand,” the report said.

The possibility of butts being thrown off of the deck was “beyond remote” to begin with, said Segaloff, after the vote. The original proposal called for a six-foot fence around the rooftop area. After the objections of Yale, the fence will now be outfitted with a vinyl awning that will further prevent butt-flicking, Segaloff said. “You’d have to be eight feet tall and jump over the cantilevered awning to get a butt over the roof,” he said.

Responding to another of Yale’s stated concerns — that the deck would promote smoking — Segaloff said that it would in fact have the opposite effect. Toad’s patrons will not be going out on the sidewalk to smoke, but up on the roof, where they’ll be out of sight, he said.

The Board of Zoning Appeals will vote on the roof deck proposal at its September meeting. Segaloff could not predict how the board will vote. “I just don’t know,” he said.