A popular vegetarian cafe and computer training center on King Street will be allowed to continue operating as it already does thanks to a unanimous ruling by the zoning hearing board Wednesday night.
The board’s vote a zoning violation issued by the borough’s head zoning officer that could have shut down the iCreate Cafe.
The ruling was good news to the nearly 20 customers who showed up at the hearing to speak on the business’s behalf and who applauded when the ruling was issued.
Sherry Green of Reading told the zoning board she heard about the iCreate Cafe “by word-of-mouth” and as a vegan, she was coming to Pottstown more often to sample the food prepared by Ashraf Khalil, the shop’s owner.
Barbara Drysdale of Chester Springs, told the zoning board she is leader of a 96-member vegan dining club and that she has discovered several other stores in Pottstown where she now shops because she comes to town for Khalil’s food.
Without the cafe, she would not be back, she said.
Darlene Bainbridge of Farmington Avenue told the board, “people won’t come to Pottstown for a pizza shop. They will and they do come for this.”
Another Farmington Avenue resident, Joe Early, told the board simply “we have enough empty buildings in Pottstown.”
And, in fact, the building at 130 King St. was vacant for three years before Khalil started his business.
Since he’s come, iCreate Cafe has helped improve the perception of safety and aesthetics on that block, neighbors and customers told the zoning board.
“He is the kind of people we need more of in Pottstown,” said neighbor Daniel Leary.
But as much as Khalil’s business was praised for the food, it was the food that caused the conflict with the borough’s zoning code.
The business first won conditional zoning approval from borough council in April, 2012 as a computer training center.
But that business did not do well in the poor economy and Khalil said he began to notice that the snacks and drinks he served to his students were increasing popular.
“When we started, it was about 80 percent computer training, but now, its kind of reversed,” Khalil told the board, noting that he still makes nearly all his food with “two George Foreman grills and a toaster oven.”
He also has a permit from the Montgomery County Health Department, he said.
Khalil’s attorney, Peter Dolan, told the zoning board that because the business was seeking a “use variance, not an area variance,” the level of “hardship” Khalil needed to demonstrate to win over the zoning board was not as severe.
“The hardship really is economic and legislative,” said Dolan, noting that the traditional town neighborhood zoning in which the business is located encourages a mix of residential and commercial, but does not allow restaurants.
That flies in the face of the facts that, two blocks to the west, the Ice House Restaurant is located and two blocks to the east, Racine, formerly the Funky Little Kitchen, has been a restaurant location for years, Dolan argued.
There are numerous other businesses on the block, including two salons and a plumbing supply business, Dolan said.
If the district were meant to be strictly residential, then why is there a three-hour parking limit on King Street? Khalil asked, noting that no such limit exists on Chestnut Street where he lives.
Several supporters also pointed out that Khalil’s food provides Pottstown with a healthy alternative when eating out.
“We don’t need more pizza parlors,” said North Price Street resident Kim Glanz.
Bainbridge said iCreate Cafe “is one of the few places where you get real food, food that’s not processed, and where I don’t have to exclude my kids from 90 percent of the menu.”
North Coventry resident and nurse Patricia Dillon brought a book that explored the effect a western diet with more meat had on the health of residents in China, saying that the introduction of that diet in place of traditional Chinese food coincided with an increase in cancer and heart disease in that population.
Former resident Roy Keeler, who travels to Pottstown regularly from Lancaster County, said adopting Khalil’s diet and more exercise had led to him losing 35 or 40 pounds “since the start of summer.”
He also pointed out that iCreate Cafe is one of the restaurants nearest to the new tourism-recreation district at the borough’s western gateway unveiled before council the night before the zoning meeting.
“When people get off that train,” he said of the Colebrookdale Railroad, “they’re not going to want to go to McDonald’s and this provides them with a healthy alternative.”
North Hanover Street resident Dianne Krum said she volunteers with that railroad and said Executive Director Nathaniel Guest has praised the business as “one of the best things to happen to Pottstown.”