One of the biggest local news stories during the last year has been the dispute between the owners of the Market on the Fareway at the Chestnut Hill Hotel and a significant number of nearby neighbors along Ardleigh Street and Hartwell Lane. The center of that dispute was the creation of a beer garden – an improved seating area with a trellis behind the market property – and the opening of Chestnut Hill Brewery, where the brewing of beer on site and the cooking of pizzas were all seen to be steps too far for residents. Those residents had a valid claim in the form of an agreement signed between prior owners of the market and residents that prohibited cooking on site and adding area to the market’s seating. After months of public back and forth between both parties, the issue seemed to have come to a regrettable head in May this year when that group of neighbors hired a lawyer and announced that they were preparing to take the market to court. Many worried that a court battle would be a losing situation for both sides in the form of a long and contentious legal battle with uncertain outcomes. So it was nice to see that neighbors and owners of the market came to an agreement that both sides should be able to live with. The market will remove a noisy refrigerator truck – a common complaint for nearly every neighbor I spoke to about the market – and agree to a set schedule for closing, and the neighbors will sign on to a revised agreement that gives the market owners the ability to operate the brewery and other food services in the market. What makes this agreement even better is that it’s a real win for the rest of Chestnut Hill. Hotel and market owner Ron Pete and his family have turned the entire complex into the neighborhood’s biggest and best attraction. During this weekend’s Night of Light celebration, the beer garden area was full of locals enjoying the outdoor seating, the food and the fountain. It is a real community focal point. And the Petes have created that hub by maintaining a real family business approach. They’re hands-on owners who clearly care deeply about the business and about the community. It’s likely that there may be some hard feelings left over from the dispute, but it is nice that the argument did not become more contentious – something with which we’re all too familiar in Chestnut Hill. Both the Petes and all the neighbors deserve a ton of credit for working this issue out in a way that makes everyone happy. Pete Mazzaccaro