[FIXED] 403 Forbidden error – missing .htaccess?

I just setup a new linode running debian and a LAMP stack. After running through all of the configuration steps and pulling up my website, I am getting a 403 Forbidden error on the site. When I check the error log I get the following:

Permission denied: /srv/www/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

There actually wasn't even a .htaccess file in the www directory. Just in case it was needed to work I created a blank file .htaccess file and gave it 755 permissions. Still no luck. Thoughts?

UPDATE: I guess something was wacky with the user permissions. I deleted everything in /srv and started over and it works now