A first-time business owner won permission Tuesday night to open a barbershop on Edgewood Avenue, after a divided Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) rejected a motion to deny it and neighbors questioned whether the shop belongs in their residential neighborhood at all. Local zoners took that vote dur ing the BZA’s latest monthly meeting at City Hall. They voted 3-2 to approve a special exception allowing Zuley Lopez to open a six- to eight-chair barbershop in the ground-floor storefront at 162 Edgewood Ave., in the Dwight neighborhood. The approval is limited to barbering, and the shop’s hours are capped at 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. “I want to do [this] the right way,” Lopez told the board, explaining that she sought every approval before opening. “It’s gonna be my first” barbershop, she added. Lopez, a nurse who lives about a block from the storefront, said the barbershop was her husband’s and son’s idea. Her husband is a professional barber. She plans to call it “Doctor’s Barbershop” and hopes to open by December. The property, at the corner of Edgewood Avenue and Day Street, sits in an RM-2 (High-Middle Density) residential zone, where barbershops are allowed only by special exception from the board. The building has apartments on its upper floors; the 946-square-foot ground-floor space most recently housed a clothing store called A Hustler’s Vibe. Before that, it was home to a bookstore.  A police substation sits across the street, along with Amistad Academy’s middle school and a community garden. City planning staff had recommended approval with conditions. Lopez said the shop will serve men only. She told the board she sees the nearby police substation as a plus for safety and said she had spoken with officers there and offered parking at her own home nearby, including her garage. She acknowledged, under questioning from Dwight Alder Frank Douglass, that she had not reached out to the neighborhood before applying to open this new business. Several neighbors and community members urged the board to slow down.  Olivia Martson asked that Lopez present her plans to the Dwight Central Management Team before any vote, and objected to the proposed hours. The Greater Dwight Development Corporation submitted a letter opposing the application, raising concerns around parking, traffic congestion, and public safety. Timothy Anderson, who said he has owned property nearby for about 25 years, raised concerns about parking near the school and said that when the clothing store occupied the space, people loitered and double-parked late into the night. He also said the area already has plenty of barbershops. “I just don’t really want my property value to go down,” Anderson said. Alex Taylor, who said she has served on a neighborhood management team for decades, argued that businesses like barbershops and convenience stores can become hubs for crime, pointing to Whalley Avenue.  “Just ride Whalley Avenue,” she said, “and you can see exactly what’s going on.” Lopez responded that her shop would follow the rules. “That’s not gonna be us,” she said. Attorney Ben Trachten, who was not involved in the application, spoke in support, arguing that small neighborhood businesses like this have become nearly “impossible to get approved.” He told the board that applicants have no obligation to “kiss the ring of the local alder” or present to a community management team.  City staff confirmed that the zoning code does not require applicants to contact neighbors or elected officials. Acting BZA Chair Christian Peralta initially moved to table the application so Lopez could meet with the management team. The city’s attorney noted, however, that because the public hearing had already closed, the board could not consider any new information from such a meeting. Peralta then moved to deny the application. That motion failed, 2-3. Peralta and Commissioner Alphonse Paolillo voted in support of denying the barbershop’s application; Commissioners Michael Martinez, Miles Lasater, and Carl Jackson voted against that denial. Martinez noted that he lives in Fair Haven, where he said seven barbershops on Grand Avenue stay open until 9 p.m., so working people can get haircuts after work. The board then approved the barbershop with conditions limiting it to barbering and setting its hours. Jackson, who had voted against the motion to deny, objected to the hours restriction. Lopez said she sees the shop as serving the whole neighborhood, from students at the nearby school to workers at the hospital a block away. “We’re just trying to help, you know, the community,” she said. The post Barbershop OK’d Over Neighbors’ Objections  appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less