A Columbus business owner will ask once more for permission to build a shoe store on Warpath Road at tonight”s Columbus City Council meeting.
Janet Morris, owner of Beauté Salon at the corner of Warpath and Lehmberg roads, has appeared twice before the Planning and Zoning Commission and once before the city council requesting a zoning change or variance in order to add a 400-square-foot shoe store to her lot. The salon existed before the area was included in the city limits and was grandfathered in when the neighborhood was zoned.
Tonight is likely Morris” last chance to plead her case. After being denied by the planning commission in September on the grounds the character of the neighborhood had not changed enough to warrant a zoning change, she appeared before the city council. The council, which has authority to grant zoning changes to individual lots, deadlocked 3-3 on Morris” request and sent the matter back to the planning commission.
Morris altered her original rezoning request to a conditional use request, but the planning commission ruled her request did not meet city code requirements.
The council will consider the planning commission”s recommendation tonight, at which point Morris will have the opportunity to speak. She said Monday she intends to provide examples of other businesses being run out of homes on Warpath, such as day-care services.
“If they can do it in their homes, why can”t I?” she said.
Council members declined to speculate what will happen when the issue comes back before the council.
The council”s agenda does not include a discussion of replacing the late Curtis Austin Sr. on the bench as city judge.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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