Tahir Choudhry was so sure he’d get permission to open a convenience store on Blake Street that he went ahead and bought the building.
“Big mistake,” said Beaver Hills Alderman Carl Goldfield. “We’ll take you to court.”
Goldfield, the Board of Aldermen’s president, made that promise in the hallway outside last week’s meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).
Choudhry showed up at the meeting to ask for a special zoning exception to open a store at 145 Blake St. at the corner of Blake Street and Osborne Avenue. The site is home to a long-abandoned gas station in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Choudhry bought the building (pictured below) last month, before getting zoning permission to set up a new convenience store there. He said his conversations with the City Plan Department had convinced him approval was a sure thing. After Tuesday’s BZA meeting, where neighbors railed against the plan, it’s not looking so sure anymore.
The board sent the matter to the City Plan Commission, which will consider it next week before a final BZA vote in September. First the board heard from a number of neighbors who oppose the notion that a convenience store might open up at a busy intersection where kids board school buses every morning.
Ramiz Khoda (pictured), who represented Choudhry before the board, expressed willingness to adjust store hours to accommodate the school bus schedule.
Khoda initially told the board that the store would be open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. It would sell cigarettes and prepackaged cigars and have a “lottery machine” and a coffee bar, he said. No cooking would be done on site. The store would be one of a number of “On The Go” convenience stores owned by Tahir Choudhry.
“Could you make me a ham and cheese sub if I came in?” asked BZA Chair Cathy Weber.
Khoda said he could.
“So a convenience or grocery store open from 5 to 11 is going to be good for the neighborhood?” Weber asked. “Suppose we say you have to close at 8 p.m.?”
Khoda said that could work.
“Are you aware of the bottleneck on school mornings?” asked board member Victor Fasano. Multiple school buses use that intersection for pick-ups, he said.
Weber again brought up the store hours. “Don’t you think that’s kind of early? That’s a quiet, calm neighborhood.”
Alderman Goldfield (pictured), who represents the ward that begins across the street from the proposed store site, spoke up against the plan.
“This is a totally unnecessary use,” he said. The neighborhood successfully fought a similar plan for the building in 2003, he said.
There are several convenience stores already available on neighboring blocks, Goldfield said.
“It’s just not a use we want,” he said.
Two other neighbors also spoke against the proposal. One read from opposition letters written by other neighbors.
Khoda responded that he would be willing to adjust the store hours. A convenience store would be a better use than an abandoned building, he said. “We are improving the aesthetic nature of the existing building.”
Moments later, out in the hall, Goldfield stopped to talk with Khoda and Choudhry. He expressed surprise that Choudhry had already purchased the building.
“You bought it?” he said incredulously. “Big mistake. Big mistake.”
Choudhry said his conversations with the City Plan Department had made him confident the plan would be approved.
Even if the BZA grants the zoning relief, neighbors would appeal the decision in court, Goldfield said. “We’ve been fighting this for years.”
“That was really not a smart thing to do,” Goldfield said, shaking his head.
“I’ll see what happens,” said Choudhry.