Altoona's Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday granted a variance to allow the owner of Edible Flower Arrangements to transfer her business to the former Joseph M. Hazlett Plumbing office at 204 17th St., in a multiple-household residential zone.
Hazlett's has used the building only for storage since 1991, so its status as a "nonconforming" commercial use has lapsed, as that status remains for only a year once the nonconforming use ends.
The board granted the variance because turning the first floor of the building into residential space to conform with the regular zoning requirements would have been "cost prohibitive," board solicitor Bill Stokan said.
The board can grant a variance when it finds a "hardship" connected with a property that makes conforming with regular zoning rules impractical.
The building was built to be commercial and served as a butcher shop and market before Hazlett turned it into a plumbing shop in the early 1980s, testified Joe Hazlett, whose son Chris now runs the business.
The first floor is a big open room, and would require major renovations to become residential, said Hazlett and John Ulicne of Hollidaysburg, the father of Edible Flower Arrangements' owner Megan Maher, also of Hollidaysburg.
If the board didn't grant the variance, no one else was likely to buy the property and turn it into housing, Ulicne said.
The board made the approval conditional on Maher's creating four parking spaces to the side of the building, as she outlined in a presentation to the members, and not placing a tenant into the one-bedroom apartment upstairs, in order not to aggravate neighborhood parking problems.
The board also granted Maher permission for two 20-square-foot signs, twice the square footage allowed by the regulations.
Maher previously ran the business from a shop on Pleasant Valley Boulevard, but closed that location recently, she told the board.
She plans to have three employees - herself and her mother and sister, she said.
The business creates bouquets made of fruit carved to resemble flowers.
Most customers receive their bouquets through delivery, Maher said.
The vote to grant the variance was unanimous.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
