Tattoo Shop Getting Pushed Around Via Zoning

April 24th, 2009 · No Comments

Tattoo Parlor Owner Livid
By Dave Moller
Published : April 22, 2009

GRASS VALLEY, CA – Grass Valley tattoo parlor owner Zoey Hunter feels like she is in a bureaucratic Catch 22 situation that endangers her ability to survive.

The owner also feels like the city and she has built her business in over the last decade does not want her anymore, after she sought a quick zoning change this week from the Planning Commission that was postponed to the May meeting.

Meanwhile, city planning officials said Wednesday Hunter is caught in a situation where the building she rents has been foreclosed on and a previous zoning change that limits where she can move.

If she waits and goes through the planning process, she could get relief, according to Planning Commission Chairman Jason Fouyer and Community Development Director Joe Heckel.

“We don’t have the luxury of waiting 30 days,” for a change, Hunter countered. She also fears the new owners of the building will boot her out of her 526 Mill Street location, even though Fouyer said the purchasers could allow it to remain open as a grandfathered use.

The trouble for Hunter is she was told by her landlord that possession of the building changes on April 26 and she does not know who bought it, or what their intentions are.

“We could come to work one day and have locks on all the doors,” Hunter said.

“They could have made an exception for us, but they acted like the only option was a $4,000 to $5,000 fee,” for a zoning amendment to allow the business to continue where it is, an unacceptable cost to her.

“We get the distinct feeling they don’t care about us,” Hunter said. “I don’t consider my art to be offensive, I’ve tattooed a mayor.”

The possibility exists to move the business into one of the city’s C-3 zoning designations that allow tattoo parlors. Hunter said none of the three areas of that type of zoning in the city would be good for business, which needs foot traffic to be successful.

The C-3 areas are around the corner of McKnight Way and South Auburn St., along Railroad Avenue, and the West Main Street – Scandling Avenue area. The areas were changed to C-3 designation in 2007 as part of the city’s revamping of its development codes.

City law allows a broad commercial use under C-3, Heckel said, from offices to auto detailing shops. It also allows for fortune tellers and pawn shops, Hunter said, businesses she was offended to be lumped with.

“We look at the actual use, not the individuals or proprietors,” when making zoning use decisions, Heckel said. “It’s a city-wide question as to where businesses should go.”

The development code changes were done over a two-year period with extensive input from all kinds of people and committees, Heckel said. Anyone can come in an apply for a zoning use amendment, but it does cost about $4,000 to $,5,000, Heckel said.

“It’s not over yet,” Heckel said. “The planning commission could hear this again, they continued the public hearing,” to May.

“It’s not a personal thing at all,” Fouyer said of the commission’s decision to postpone the matter to see how it might be dealt with. “It has to do with a potential conflict in a particular use.”

“There is a multitude of building for rent but we can’t go in them because of the zoning,” Hunter said. “Our customers are enraged and many of them drive hours to get here and spend money at the restaurants, bars and motels.

“We don’t want to move, but we have a business to run,” Hunter said. “We’re looking at moving to Yuba City.”

Source : The Union