Members of the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board attend Wednesday’s meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — The city will soon have a new beauty salon and barber shop, as well as additional apartments for rent, following approval from the Zoning Hearing Board Wednesday at its monthly meeting.
Lussy Marte was approved for a special exception to change a nonconforming use from a building containing a church with an existing dwelling unit to a beauty salon and barber shop with an existing dwelling unit, located within an R-1 zone at 563 Carey Ave.
Marte, who is a licensed cosmologist, told the board she plans to have four barber shop and three beautician chairs, one nail tech and one space to perform massages.
Ideally, she wants to have eight employees, including herself.
Hours of operation will most likely be 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Additionally, Deligne Ramirez was approved for a special exception to change a nonconforming use from a property containing a single-family home and a two-unit residential dwelling changed to a property containing a three-unit apartment building with the existing two-unit residential dwelling, located within an R-1 zone at 76 Riverside Dr.
A variance to waive two parking spaces was also approved.
The application moved forward with a vote of 3-1, with Board Member Hayden White voting no.
Architect for the project Chuck Gunton explained that there will be eight parking spaces on the property.
The initial application for four units was denied at last month’s zoning meeting. The plans were then redrawn and resubmitted at Wednesday’s meeting with only three new apartments.
There will be two units on the second floor and one unit on the first floor. The space that was originally going to house a fourth unit will now be a community lounge space for the tenants in the building.
Gunton explained this space will have a small business center where tenants can work on their laptops, a small kitchenette with some vending machines for drinks, and a mail room.
There will also be an enclosed courtyard.
Property owner Deligne Ramirez said he plans to rent to families and that rent will most likely be $1,200 a month.
When asked when the apartments will be ready for rent, Gunton was not sure on an exact timeline because there are a lot of improvements that need to be made to the property.
Other applications approved on Wednesday include El Rey Tire and Service for a property located within a C-2 zone at 93 Butler St. for a special exception to construct an additional building that will be used for tire storage.
Approval is subject to the applicant’s compliance with all the applicable building and fire codes.