The city Zoning Hearing Board Wednesday granted four variances requested by the company that is redeveloping the former Juniata Silk Mill on Broadway as a multi-tenant commercial facility in an industrial flex zone.

One will allow establishment of a preschool larger than 5,000 square feet; another will allow a drive-thru window, in this case for a coffee shop; another will allow a five-foot rear setback for a drive-thru lane, rather than the required 10-foot setback; and one will allow for 84 off-street parking spaces, where 126 would normally be required.

Simington and its consulting architect Tom Harley of Indiana, Pa., argued that the parking variance is justified because there are offsetting pressures on parking at the facility due to the multiplicity of tenants — with peak demand by the hour and by the day varying from business to business; and also because there are 33 street spaces along the building.

Ashlyn Dugan, owner of Coffee on 3rd, needs a drive-thru, because without it, her sales would be vastly reduced, she said. That will be especially true in the Simington building, where Dugan’s shop is intended to have a symbiotic relationship with the daycare center.

“I’m a mom,” Dugan said. “I don’t want to get out of my car and take my kids inside (to the daycare center) before I get my coffee.”

That symbiotic relationship between the coffee shop and daycare center will also be expressed in a “play cafe” on which the owners are cooperating.

The respective owners envision mothers buying coffee in the shop, then taking their kids with them into the play cafe, where the moms would relax and the kids would have fun with play equipment and toy houses, Dugan said.

Simington officials argued for the reduced setback for the drive-thru lane so that there could be a bumpout that would provide an increased turning radius to allow drivers to more easily get around one corner of the building to the back, where the drive-thru window is located, officials said.

To assuage concerns of city officials that the turn would still be too sharp, the developer may sacrifice a parking space to create a bumpout on the side of the building, so that vehicles could begin swinging out away from the corner earlier.

Academy Preschool wants to make its Silk Mill location — there are centers already in Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Tyrone and Bellwood — larger than 5,000 feet, because the size of the center dictates how many children can be served, said owner Samantha Pope.

The Silk Mill sat empty for 15 to 18 years before the late Brinton Simington bought it in 2018, according to an explanatory letter to the board from Brinton’s son Scott, one of the members of the development company, Simington Plaza IV.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.