Aliyya Swaby Photo
Luciano, center, with attorney Segaloff Tuesday night.
Barbershops are to Grand Avenue what pizzerias are to Wooster Street.
That argument helped convinced the Board of Zoning Appeals to approve the fifth hair-cutting establishment in a few short blocks on Fair Haven’s commercial district, over the objection of a mentor-turned-competitor.
The board unanimously voted Tuesday night to grant Gilberto Luciano a special exception to put a barbershop in a mixed-use business district at 83 – 85 Grand Ave. — right next door to his former boss’s two barbershops.
Luciano’s former boss and competitor-to-be Jose Orlando Santos – owner of Orlando’s Barber Shop – argued the approval would saturate the market in the immediate Grand Avenue area and deprive him of the benefits of operating in a mixed-use business district.
The board listened to and ultimately disagreed with several Fair Haven residents who said they want more commercial choices, not just barbershops, on the avenue to boost the neighborhood’s economic viability.
Luciano’s lawyer, Jim Segaloff, said his client’s barbershop would replace a former, now vacant pawnshop at 83 – 85 Grand Ave., and would not cause any traffic problems. A lot at Pearl Street and Grand Avenue has about 50 spaces free regularly, he said.
The special exception for a barbershop in a business district does not require neighborhood necessity or economic factors to be taken into consideration, he pointed out from the staff report.
Luciano worked at Orlando’s next door and “made an entrepreneurial decision” to lease the adjacent property and start his own business, Segaloff said. He “poured in” more than $30,000 before realizing he would need a special exception to go forward with the plan.
“The shop is not going to create any issues in the neighborhood. As to the fact that there’s another barbershop: What can I say? This is America,” Segaloff said.
Wooster Street has “a half dozen pizzerias, all striving, all doing well,” he said. Though a barbershop is not a pizzeria, “the concept is the same,” he said.
Santos and his lawyer Daniel Burns disagreed with Segaloff’s characterization. The new business “will influence our community in a negative way,” Santos said of his former employee’s venture.
Santos, who has been on Grand Avenue since 2007, said he was happy Luciano was looking to open his own business – until he found out it would be right next door.
Burns argued allowing another barbershop would distract from the aim of the business district, which is to promote diversity of neighborhood goods and services. The intent is “to foster a walkable town center,” he said, “not a ‘Barber’s Row.’”
Three Fair Haven neighbors spoke up against the shop.
Diane Panasci, who recently began Fair Haven Forward, an “economic arm” of the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association, said she had been working on getting other types of businesses, such as coffee shops, into that space.
“We want foot traffic. We want people to be enjoying Grand Avenue,” she said. “We’re trying to get a distressed neighborhood and make it more viable.”
Ward 14 co-chair Tom Burwell read aloud a letter from the Grand Avenue Special Services District commissioners opposing the new barbershop.
“Not only do I feel that it is unnecessary due to the THREE other barbershops literally side by side at 87A & 87B & 93 GRAND AVENUE, but it is unfair to allow another shop to open up and cause conflict of interest to the already established businesses that have poured in all their overhead and funds to maintain their doors open for several years now,” one commissioner wrote.
Fair Haven Alder Santiago Berrios-Bones also wrote in saying many of his constituents oppose the new store. “Other businesses are welcome, such as a pharmacy,” he wrote.
Marvin Barrett was the only neighbor who spoke up for Luciano.
“Why is there so much animosity? The American Dream is to start a business,” he said. Luciano took advantage of a real-estate opportunity, he said.
Board members said they understood neighbors’ concerns but were shocked by their vehemence.
“Barbershops are unique. I grew up in an environment where there were many barbershops within two blocks,” said commissioner Walter Esdaile. “I’m concerned about the neighbors being so strongly against it. I’m surprised to see that the letters produced here have such strong wording used against a barbershop.”
Acting board chair Ben Trachten voted for the special exception in the name of small business, saying, “I too feel entrepreneurship is important.”
Articles about zoning hearings should always lead with the written law, the exception asked for, and precedent.