Jake,
I'll try to shed a somewhat professional light on this. I'm a planner here in Sacramento. Most cities have provisions for commercial uses in residentially zoned area, especially if the site was used for commercial in the past. If you have your 501c3 this may work to your advantage. Staff may understand the constraints of small non-profit support service and turn a blind eye. I would call the local planning office to see what provisions if any exist. Another thing to look at is this. When was the site last operating as commercial? We have a provision for non-conforming uses that if the use was abandoned for 1 year it will loose the legal non-conforming status. If this site was recently a commercial use then you may be able to just set up shop.
Hope this helps
--
Chris Dougherty
Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen
www.sacbikekitchen.org
On 11/14/07,
Macho Philipovich <macho@resist.ca> wrote:
hey jake. the derailer bicycle collective in denver had zoning problems
they weren't able to resolve, and had to move. their website is at
http://www.derailerbicyclecollective.org/
if you want to get in touch
with them. i think they have an archive of news pieces and
correspondence between them and the city when they were going through it
you could probably look at (not on the website).
then again, i think the only reason it became a problem is because one
of the neighbours complained, so that may not be an issue for you.
in canada, where our shop is, i know all you have to do is pay a small
fee and apply to the city for a "zoning variance" on the house, where
they basically put up posters to see if anyone in the neighbourhood has
a problem with it. if no one does, that particular building can is
exempt from certain zoning regulations. i'm not sure if it works the
same way south of the border.
good luck,
macho
Jake Liefer wrote:
> Hello,
> I operate a small bike Co-op in a small, run down town called Beaver
> Falls, PA. We're looking into purchasing a location and think we've
> found the perfect spot. It's a former business / house with a three
> car garage and a large glass storefront area. The only problem is that
> it's zoned residential even though it used to be a business many years
> ago. The street is pretty run down, with three of the four
> 'neighbors' being vacant housing, so I'm not too worried about
> neighbors complaining about it. I'd like to paint our logo on the
> garage but I'm afraid that it my draw too much attention from the
> zoning people.
> Do any of your co-ops operate in non-commercialy zoned space? Have
> you had any problems arise because of it?
> Thanks,
> Jake
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