New Haven Independent

Maria Azana, 43, sells sandwiches and staple food at Mollendito Grocery & Deli, at 550 Congress Ave. in the Hill area of town.

To seek refuge from high gas and electric bills, she found a new spot for her business— right at home. Her proposal, for which she needs permission to open a business in a residential part of the Annex, is pending before the city zoning board, which has received a recommendation to deny.

Standing outside her flower-laden porch one recent afternoon, Azana told of how she came to set up a shop of her own — and how she hopes to survive the financial squeeze that’s hurting small business owners across the state.

Azana left the beaches of Mollendo, Perú, 12 years ago, following family to New Haven. With several young kids of her own, she took on work as a babysitter to pay the bills.

The job wasn’t exactly ideal, she said: “I was going to lose my head.” She switched to a factory then spent years at cleaning jobs.

Hoping to set off on her own, Azana took an accounting class last year from the Spanish-American Merchants’ Association — the same group that had helped her family members open a restaurant down the street. (Click here for a story on that.) SAMA set her up with a business loan, and she opened up shop on Congress Avenue in October.

Her three oldest kids, ages 18 to 23, take shifts behind the counter. Customers, many using food stamps, come and go, picking up a bag of chips or a pack of cigarettes. Sales have been solid, she said.

Utility bills are another story.

Electric bills totaling $500 a month have been hard to swallow, she said. And gas for daily commutes adds up. So she got an idea: Why not open up shop at home?

Her home, at 224 Quinnipiac, sits at a busy intersection with Fulton Street. She lives there on the second floor with her five kids, and rents out the bottom floor. There’s plenty of room for parking, she said, sweeping her arm across the yard.

And there would be no more trips between home and work: “I’d just pop downstairs if I needed to,” she said, in Spanish.

“It would be magnificent,” Azana said. She’d ask her first-floor tenants to leave, knock down some internal walls to expand the space inside, and open up for business.

First, she needs approval from the city Board of Zoning Appeals for a special exception to open a business in a residential zone.

At its March meeting, Azana approached the mic with the help of translator Blanca Paez of SAMA. There wasn’t much discussion, and no opposition, but Azana still has some persuading to do if she wants her plan to go through: she must go before the City Plan Commission on Wednesday, and a draft City Plan Commission report is recommending denial.

Azana’s home is deep in a residential zone, the draft report explains, 300 feet from the nearest store. While there’s no retail space available in that immediate area, there is a convenience store at 86 Farren Ave., so she may have a tough time arguing that her store provides unique goods.

“The planned house conversion is not in character with the neighborhood, and there was no extensive showing of necessity to permit the house conversion,” reads the report.

Azana was still holding out hope that her plan would prevail. Opening the store in her home would put her just two blocks away from her relatives at Macchu Picchu, whose restaurant she says is going well. Whether her idea passes or not, after setting down roots in New Haven, she says she’s here to stay.

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