New Haven Independent

At its monthly meeting on Thursday night, the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) approved applications permitting a barber shop in the Hill and a paint store on Whalley. The board also voted unanimously to approve a parking request for a Yale fraternity.

The brothers at Sigma Alpha recently discovered that they have been operating illegally for 13 years. The fraternity never obtained its certificate of occupancy. Now, with parking approval from the BZA, the group can apply to the city building department for the certificate.

Members of the fraternity showed up at last month’s BZA meeting in slacks and blazers.

“Oh I remember this,” said BZA Chair Cathy Weber (in top photo), when the fraternity item came up for a vote on Tuesday. “These gentlemen were very nice in their neckties and their suits. They looked so very nice.”

Weber and the other board members also voted to approve a request from two (non-fraternity) brothers seeking to open a barber shop in an old United Illuminating transfer station on Washington Avenue in the Hill. The approval came with six conditions that limit the shop’s hours and the number of employees, and specify parking and signage requirements.

Laundromat’s Out, Paint’s In

Board members approved a proposed Whalley Avenue paint store on Thursday, nine months after approving a laundromat for the same location.

The laundromat plan had met with strident neighborhood opposition, and locals appealed the BZA’s decision last March.

With the laundromat proposal tied up in court, a second applicant for the space emerged — Sherwin Williams paint. Neighbors like that idea, and said so at last month’s BZA meeting.

Weber noted the neighborhood support on Tuesday night, before voting to approve the paint store plan.

“They neighbors are very, very happy with this,” she said. “So on that note, let’s take a vote.”