Hill Alder Angel Hubbard: “This is one of our hotspots.” Toni Dawson: “He has no control over what happens outside the store. But as a community, we do.” Is the deli down the block from John C. Daniels School a source of good coffee and community spirit, or a “hot spot” for open s ubstance use and drug dealing? The Board of Zoning Appeals heard competing narratives about Four Js Big Deli on Tuesday night, as the store’s bid to expand its operating hours drew over a dozen people to testify — evenly split between supporters and critics. The board eventually struck a compromise — permitting the store to open as early as 6 a.m., but mandating that it continue to close by 9 p.m. Jose Morel, the West Haven-based owner of Four Js Big Deli at 198 Davenport Ave., was seeking a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to open the store from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. According to Morel, he had kept the store open during those hours since he first purchased it about two years ago. He said that he had not realized the store was restricted to opening between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. by a previous special exception dating back to 2003. That is, until city Building and Zoning Enforcement Inspector Evan Trachten visited the store to notify Morel of the 7 to 9 restriction. “When I was notified, I started respecting the hours of operation,” Morel told the zoning board in Spanish, as interpreter Zuleyka Torres translated to English. But his business suffered, he said. He wrote in his application that he suffered a 30 percent loss in profits after limiting the hours. He told BZA members on Tuesday that many of his customers work nearby at Yale New Haven Hospital, and “between 6 and 7 is the busiest hour for sandwiches and coffee in the morning.” So on July 17, Morel visited the City Plan Department to submit his application for a special exception. A month later, on Tuesday evening, he found himself in Meeting Rooms 2 and 3 with a dozen neighbors and patrons — not all of whom were on his side. Prior to the meeting, representatives of John C. Daniels School — an elementary school located down the block — wrote a letter to the board opposing the extended hours. “The sidewalk surrounding Four Js is a constant site for loitering, open drug dealing, active substance use, and public intoxication,” wrote Principal Yesenia Perez, Library Specialist Patricia McGovern, and teacher Heather Doraz. Hill Alders Angel Hubbard and Kampton Singh, as well as the Hill North Community Management Team, also opposed the extended hours. Alexandra Taylor testified via Zoom on Tuesday that as a parent of two kids who attend John C. Daniels School, “that’s one of the stores that I fear for any child that has to walk by, any family that has to go by.” “There is always loitering and littering,” she said. “It’s basically a no-walk zone.” “This is one of our hotspots,” echoed Hubbard, who said that people are “definitely” selling drugs on the sidewalk outside the store. Hubbard said that she gets repeated calls about Four Js from residents of the ward, and that she has regularly visited the store with the police department’s Hill District Manager Sgt. Jasmine Sanders. She said that when she and Sanders have confronted the convenience store staff about the activity outside the store, they have heard back that the store workers are afraid of retaliation if they call the police. (The city shut down the store for a period of time in 2022, prior to when Morel said he acquired it.) CMT Chair Miguel Pittman: Small business owners are responsible to the neighborhood. Hill North Management Team Chair and co-owner of Sandra’s Next Generation restaurant Miguel Pittman said that his business, located nearby, is able to prevent loitering and littering outside. “This is not about a neighborhood business,” he said. “It’s about protecting the balance between doing business in our community and respecting the people who call this community home.” While six people testified against the store’s application, seven testified in support of it — and painted a very different narrative about the business. Horace Milton: “Don’t cut these people. They have families to feed, and they also feed the neighborhood.” Winthrop Avenue resident Chris Higgins testified that Morel “takes the loss” to provide food to kids who are hungry and hands out water to kids playing basketball nearby. As for accusations of loitering and drug activity, Higgins repeated a common refrain among Morel’s supporters: “You can’t control what happens in the neighborhood like that.” One Zoom testifier who went by the name Suheil said that she lives nearby the store on Vernon Street as a single mom of six. “I work all day. I get out very, very late at night,” she said. The store is a convenient way for her to pick up food. She said that she has always felt safe bringing her children to the store, including on the way to school. “We never see any drugs or littering there,” she said. Elliot Street resident Toni Dawson, who works at the hospital, said that she also goes to the deli after late night shifts. “Even if I have dinner at the hospital, it’s nice to have a little cupcake, juice, soda, before you go to the house.” She said she also stops by before work — “he has these little salami things that I like.” Dawson said that the opioid addiction services at the APT Foundation are what attracts people to loiter in the area. “So with him opening a store, he has no control over what happens outside the store,” she said. “But as a community, we do.” Once everyone had testified, zoning commissioner Chris Peralta (who served for that meeting as the board’s interim chair) made a motion to deny Morel’s application outright. None of the three other commissioners present took up the motion. Commissioner Mike Martinez moved to allow the store to open an hour earlier, at 6 a.m., but to retain the current closing time of 9 p.m. His motion carried with Peralta as the sole dissenter. BZA members Al Paolillo Sr. and Chris Peralta, Assistant Corp. Counsel Rod Williams, Planner Alex Patiño, and Deputy Zoning Director Abdul-Razak Zachariah. The post Zoners Strike Deli-Hour Compromise appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less