Attorney Gallo speaks for the check-cashers.
Faced with an outpouring of objections from nearby businesses and neighborhood organizations, the City Plan Commission put the kibosh on a plan to convert a Whalley Avenue utility closet into a check-cashing outlet.
The commission considered the plan at its regular meeting Wednesday night, as the continuation of a tabled hearing from last month.
The matter at hand was a proposal by entrepreneur Neha Anduleeb, who owns two check-cashing joints in Hartford. He also owns Wireless and Game Zone, a cell phone and video game store at 292 Whalley Ave, one of a strip of stores near the corner of Sherman Avenue. It’s inside there that he proposed to open a third check-cashing operation.
He sought to convert a utility closet into a check-cashing window. To do so, he needed a special zoning permit.
Attorney Gregory Gallo joined Anduleeb (pictured) as he sat to face the commission Wednesday.
Gallo said Anduleeb is an experienced check-cashing dealer. He said the operation would have sufficient parking in front and in back of the building. The majority of the customers would be walk-ins, Gallo said. He said Anduleeb expected to serve about 20 clients per day.
The operation would also handle bill payments and money transfers, Gallo said. He described it as a “valuable service to those who don’t have bank accounts.”
“The neighborhood may be underserved with respect to check-cashing,” Gallo said.
Whalley has two other check-cashing businesses, opponents noted.
Gallo said customers at the video games store have been asking for the service.
Attorney Timothy Lee (pictured), representing Whalley Avenue’s Connecticut State Check Cashing, was the lone voice of opposition at the hearing. He said other businesses were joining the cause, including Check King on Whalley, START bank, a pawn shop on Howe Street, Stop & Shop on Whalley, Citizens Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank.
City Plan staffer Joy Ford said a number of organizations had registered their opposition by submitting letters. Those included the Whalley Avenue Special Services District, Junta, the West River Neighborhood Services Corporations, START, St. Raphael’s, Stop and Shop, and the Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills Community Management Team.
“I don’t think there’s a public need” for more check-cashing, Lee said.
He also said that 20 customers per day were not enough to support a business. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Did you oppose the START community bank” when it wanted to open on Whalley? asked Commissioner Roy Smith.
START is joining in the opposition, Lee replied. He said his client could have opposed START, but did not, because it had “a lot of community support.”
“How do you now argue against this when you didn’t argue against anyone else?” Smith asked.
“I wasn’t representing my client then,” Lee said.
Smith said check-cashing operations can be useful to older people who might not have checking accounts.
But they have other places to cash checks on Whalley already, Lee said.
During commission discussion before voting, Chair Ed Mattison called it odd that the business expected to service only 20 customers a day. “It doesn’t compute. Let’s put it that way.”
The burden of proof is on the applicant to show that the neighborhood needs his business, Mattison said. “I don’t think he’s met it.”
Westville Alderman Adam Marchand, a commission member, noted that Beaver Hills Alderwoman Claudette Robinson-Thorpe opposed to the proposal in her district. He made a motion to deny the application. The board voted unanimously to deny, with the exception of Smith, who abstained.