Zoning Q: Which Neighborhoods May Party?

Open the doors and cue the lights in Newhallville. In the Annex? Not so fast.

That’s the upshot of two unanimous zoning decisions, green-lighting one new gathering space on Shelton Avenue while pausing an illegally existing party venue on Forbes.

Those two decisions came during the latest regular monthly meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals. The virtual meeting took place online via the Zoom videoconferencing platform.

The two venues in question are located at 381 Shelton Ave. and 345 Forbes Ave.

The board’s decision to approve a variance allowing for a ground-floor event space on Shelton Avenue in Newhallville, and its decision to continue deliberations for a month on the variance requested for an assembly hall use in the Annex, illustrated how two similar requests for zoning relief can result in two different responses from city government.

The deciding factor was not necessarily the zoning use context of the surrounding neighborhood. The Shelton Avenue business, which received unanimous support, is located in an RM‑1 low-middle density residential district. The Forbes Avenue business, for which the decision was pushed out a month, is located in an IH heavy industrial district.

Rather, the zoning commissioners and city zoning staff pushed the pause button on the Annex business’s request for relief because a few of the latter’s neighbors came out to complain about two recent, loud, late-night parties hosted on Forbes Avenue. And the Annex business’s zoning relief application lacked key details around hours of operation.

This process has been frustrating, said Debbie Russell, the owner of the Forbes Avenue party venue.

“It tells you what you can’t do, but it doesn’t really tell you what you can do. I’m looking for you guys to guide me and let me know what I can do.”

Parties Approved For Newhallville

The first aspiring party venue business to be heard by the BZA Tuesday was 381 Shelton’s Poetic Haven, run by Petulia Blake (pictured).

Blake sought a use variance to allow for the use of a 900 square-foot event space on the ground floor of an existing structure.

“I saw that there was a need for a family-friendly, social event space” in the neighborhood, Blake told the zoning commissioners. The three-story, retail-apartment building on Shelton Avenue previously held a hair salon on the ground floor. Before that, she said, the space operated as a store, and likely was used as a religious assembly even before that, based on old signage she had found.

Blake said she plans to use the space to host baby showers, small birthday parties, and art events and workshops. Her zoning relief application also lists such expected uses as classes, book club meetings, group rehearsals, black-box-theater style plays, small fashion shows, and poetry slams.

“Part of what makes it a unique space is its affordability,” Blake wrote in her application, ​“primarily for lower-income families. It also gives our ​‘surviving’ artists a professional and cost effective place to display their works from time to time.” She wrote that the space has already undergone a $23,5000 renovation.

“This space is needed in a community to better serve residents and creatives who I believe must have a ​‘healthy’ space to motivate and support their inspiration.”

Blake’s initial application had requested hours of operation of 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, she asked the zoning board commissioners if she could extend that closing time to 10 p.m. instead. That should allow her to space out planned workshops and events over the course of the day in a more Covid-safe way, she said.

“The noise may be time sensitive,” city zoning staffer Nate Hougrand told the commissioners. ​“However, I don’t think an extra half hour is going to make or break that.”

“There will be no noise,” Blake promised. ​“My intention is to keep it very intimate and respectful.”

Blake also asked the commissioners if she could receive zoning permission to host events not just inside, but also outside the premises. ​“Just for individuals to be able to move about to breathe,” she said, ​“even though they’ll have their masks on.”

Hougrand advised the commissioners to hold off on approving an outdoor use Tuesday night — and instead to ask Blake to come back in the future after her business is officially open and she has decided whether or not she really needs to operate outdoors. That will also give surrounding neighbors an opportunity to come and speak to the commission about whether or not they are concerned about a potential outdoor use at the space.

Blake’s final requested amendment to her application was to allow attendees to bring their own food and drink to the venue. ​“I myself will not cook or provide beverages,” she said.

Hougrand said that Blake would have to get a separate liquor permit, even if she wanted to allow for just BYOB or catering. ​“For the purposes of this application, no alcohol would be permitted.”

The zoning board ultimately voted unanimously in support of approving Blake’s requested variance, with the approved hours of operation extended until 10 p.m.

Parties Delayed For The Annex

Roughly an hour later at Tuesday night’s meeting, a similar request for a party space-related variance received quite a different reception — from neighbors, and from the commissioners.

Debbie Russell had requested a variance to allow for the use of an assembly hall in a heavy industrial zone, for a single-story commercial building at 345 Forbes Ave.

“I didn’t know that I needed a use variance to even have the business there,” Russell told the commissioners. ​“I’ve been there a year now. I wasn’t aware that needed the use variance to be there.”

Russell’s zoning relief application stresses that the property was previously empty and abandoned, and is situated in a pretty sparsely populated section of the Annex.

“Any use is preferred to a vacant abandoned building,” she wrote. ​“There is no demand for a heavy industrial space.”

She described the proposed use as ​“less intense than many of the allowed uses in the zone.”

Russell told the commissioners Tuesday that she plans to host, and has been hosting, baby showers, birthday parties, pop-up shops, and off-site meetings at the venue.

What exactly is an ​“assembly hall use”? BZA Commissioner Al Paolillo, Sr. asked city staff.

Hougrand pulled up the city zoning code to find the definition. ​“This is an overall category of large entertainment uses,” he said. While there is no specific definition of what exactly an ​“assembly hall” is, he said, that use is grouped generally under the same heading as such other uses as bowling alleys, fairs or carnivals, billiard halls, mini-golf courses, off-track betting venues, and trampoline centers.

BZA Commissioner Sarah Locke (pictured) raised a concern about how the application indicated no specific hours of operation. ​“Hours of operation will only be periodic,” she read directly from Russell’s application.

“We don’t know what the hours are,” she stressed.

Two residents of a condominium complex at 310 Forbes Ave. located just over 100 feet away from the venue said that when this business has been, and will be, open is exactly what they’re concerned about.

“I don’t want the hall in my community,” said a woman who identified herself only as Michelle and said she lives in a nearby condo complex.

She said the venue hosted an event several weeks ago that was lout and went until ​“at least 3 a.m. That’s when I passed out and went to sleep. But there was lots of music. It was loud, bumping. And there was a bunch of people hanging out in the area. It was just too much.”

Shi Robinson, another resident at that condo complex, agreed. She said the venue hosted multiple such late-night parties in recent weeks. ​“We’re not that close that I should be able to feel the vibrations in my bedroom in a four-story condo,” she said.

Russell defended her space as hosting late-night parties only twice during her year-long occupancy of the building. And she said the parties actually ended closer to 1:30 a.m., with cleanup perhaps extending later.

Attorney Ben Trachten (pictured) then spoke up in support of Russell’s application, citing the heavy industrial zone in which her business sits.

“I think this is an appropriate use for a long-vacant site,” he said. ​“This is a heavy industrial zone. If it’s not appropriate in this space, I can’t think of anywhere where it would be appropriate.”

Newly confirmed zoning commissioner Alexandra Daum (pictured) agreed. She referenced back to the Shelton Avenue party space variance the commissioners had approved earlier in the night.

“I think it’s technically the same use, but in a heavy industrial versus a medium or low density” zone, she said. ​“Going forward, if they were to be conditioned exactly the same way as the Shelton Avenue business, it feels like it would be pretty hard to say that it would be more appropriate in a residential area than in a heavy industrial” area.

While there does happen to be a residential use in close proximity, she said, ​“the potential for conflict is lower than in a purely residential neighborhood.”

As opposed to voting on approving, denying, or adding conditions to the application Tuesday night, the zoning board members decided to extend the application’s public hearing for a month in order to give city staff time to work with the applicant and come up with appropriate hours of operations and any other necessary conditions, like no outdoor parties.

‘As opposed to making things up on the fly as we go,” Hougrand said, ​“I think it’s better to organize our thoughts and come back next month.”