“After months of negotiating, fretting, scheduling, meeting, cold calling, drinking, worrying, complaining and agonizing,” double decker dress shop Lodekka has moved a mere half block north from its long-time perch on N Williams because of a tussle with the City over pavement, a curb cut and landscaping.
Sound familiar? Southeast Salon and the Green Castle Food Court have recently sustained blows from the Bureau of Development Services, too. Southeast Salon owner John Hopkins can't expand his thriving business unless he finds some serious coin. A $28,560 fee is a lot of hair cuts. But the Green Castle Food Court at NE 20th and Everett was dealt the knock-out blow, recently receiving word that it is being shut down due to permit and zoning violations.
Is the City working for or against small business? What improvements can (and should) be made? Or is the City doing a fine job? Discuss.
Seriously, you don't understand the reasons for zoning? Both the Southeast Salon and the Green Castle food cart lot are on Residentially zoned properties. The most basic thing you would want to learn when siting your business is, "are businesses allowed on that site?" These business owners either failed to ask that question, or more likely, chose to ignore the answer. In Lodekka's case, the owner learned that yes, you can't locate your business in a bus in a gravel lot. In all these cases you'd think a reasonable person would inquire as to the legal status of their proposal before investing in improvements.
1 likeResidential zoning is there to protect residents from having commercial uses pop up next door. It should be difficult to rezone a lot if the Comp Plan lists it as Residential. This provides surety for those living next door.
In Southeast Salon's case, they might have been able to operate a small salon in their house under Home Occupation permits. However, when you want to get bigger, the answer is not to try to defy the Comprehensive Plan and rezone your lot, (and whine about it when it's costly to apply), but do the reasonable thing and go find a commercial space to locate it in. It's not like there aren't vacant commercial spaces on nearby Division St.
The Green Castle site, likewise, is zoned residential. Allowing commercial goes against what neighbors and adjacent property owners expect from the zoning.
The city is not making it hard for small businesses. It's people running small businesses without doing their research, and without figuring out what it takes to run a small business in a city.
Thanks for chiming in, Doug. I do understand the reasons for zoning, but I don't understand the one-size-fits-all fee structure. For the right price, it sounds like anyone with deep enough pockets can fight and (possibly) change existing regulations. That just doesn't seem equitable to small business owners.