NEW SCOTLAND — Hair salons are not allowed in the commercial districts of this town.

This creates a road block for two business hopefuls who want to open a hair, tanning, and manicure salon at Stonewell Plaza.
Based on the current zoning laws, hair salons, while allowed in areas zoned Commercial Hamlet are not allowed in areas zoned Commercial. This means that along the routes 85 and 85A commercial corridor, hair salons and other businesses that fit under the code’s definition of "personal services," including shoeshines, are not permitted.

Personal Services do not qualify for special-use permits from the planning board either.
New Scotland’s zoning administrator, Paul Cantlin, said, "I personally think it’s an overlook." The commercial district is an ideal location for this type of business, Cantlin said.

The town board has the authority to amend the regulations of the zoning law. Council members, if they wanted to, could permanently make hair salons a permitted use in commercial districts.

The issue came to light on Tuesday when Vincenzio Federico and Annie Renaldo appealed to the zoning board, requesting to be allowed to put a uni-sex hair, tanning, and manicure salon in one of the vacant store fronts in Stonewell Shopping Plaza.

The applicants’ lawyer suggested that perhaps hair salons were accidentally left off the list of allowed uses when the original law was passed in the 1960’s.

Nonetheless, currently the only way Federico and Renaldo, will be able to open their desired business on the corner of routes 85 and 85A is through a use variance from the zoning board — the hardest kind of varience to receive.

After the applicants made their proposal to the board, member Wayne LaChappelle said the plan looked good to him. It includes expensive refurbishments with $4,000 tanning beds, $2,000 to $3,000 nail stations, new flooring, and mirrors.
Chairman Ronnie Von Ronnie explained to the applicant, "As much as we think this is a wonderful use, we have to adhere to the use criteria."
There are four requirements that an applicant must satisfy in order to prove that the zoning restrictions create an "unnecessary hardship."

The applicants’ attorney, Charles Assini, touched on a few of the hardships in the administrative hearing before the zoning board this Tuesday.

The owner of Stonewell Plaza, Zoe Anderson, has not been able to realize a reasonable return for Unit Six of her strip mall for 18 months since Emma Cleary’s, a café and bake shop, moved out and down the road.
"So it’s not that everyone is running here to put something," Assini said. He added that there are many vacant properties near Town Hall, on Route 85.

A hair salon will be an asset to the community as a needed service, and it will bring more people into town to increase commerce for all of the other businesses, Assini said.

Assini mentioned that allowing a hair salon isn’t changing the character of the district, because 12 years ago there was a hair salon in this plaza.

When board members asked Cantlin how a salon existed at that time, but is not allowed now, he said, for the same reason that people drive 90 miles an hour on a road with a speed limit of 75. Some things slip under the radar of the town’s zoning enforcement officers.

Zoning board member Adam Greenberg asked why a beauty salon couldn’t fit under professional services, which is a permitted use in the commercial district.

Town attorney Louis Neri said that, in the current zoning ordinance, there is no definition for profession service. Cantlin said that there used to be a definition included in the law which basically said that, just because you need a state license for the profession, does not make the service provider a professional.

Additionally, the zoning administrator can’t put hair salon under professional office, because hair salon and barber shop are clearly listed under the definition of personal services in the back of the ordinance, Cantlin said.

Since the zoning board is now considering the appeal, board member William Hennessey questioned if this hair salon will use more water or produce more traffic than the café did.

Assini said, while the shop will be renovated to hold seven cutting stations, to start, the hair stylists will just be the two business partners. They plan to hire a manicurist and maybe one other employee, meaning a total of four workers in the rental unit at one time.
Anderson said that she figured out parking, before agreeing to rent to this business. "I myself don’t want to congest it," she said of her parking lot.

The most traffic at Stonewell is caused by the restaurant in the morning and Curves, an exercise clinic, but the salon will be most busy in the evening hours when the restaurant has closed, she said. Anderson also said she factored in the water uses, and said that the water will be turned off when the stylist are not shampooing hair and there will be no clothes washers and dryers on site.

The zoning board will hold a public hearing on the variance for the hair salon on Oct. 25.

Other business

In other business, the zoning board:

— Heard a request from Donna Garramone and Chris Kobuskie, who live at 135 Altamont Road, and want to build a two-car garage, as an accessory structure next to, but not attached, to their house. They are requesting an area variance, because they want to build the garage closer to the road than the front setbacks allow.

Garramone said she wants to build the garage within the setback because the land is on a slope and it would be very expensive for her to fill in the land to build the garage and extend the driveway 70 feet back from the road. Also, placing the garage 70 feet back would require her to have to cut down trees, which she doesn’t want to do because they buffer her property from neighbors.