Appeal board nixes home spa business

In a decision on Feb. 10, Iqaluit’s development appeal board removed an Iqaluit resident’s right to operate a beauty spa business at her trucked-service house in Tundra Valley.

In April of 2004, Carol Collin began operating Carol Satin Care Studio out of house 2628 on Nanuq Drive, offering tanning beds, hair care, manicures, and other services.

When she applied for a business licence in May of that year, Collin received one without first getting a development permit. That’s because the city didn’t have an economic development officer at the time, and there was, apparently, no one there to advise her on the city’s bureaucratic procedures.

In November, some neighbouring residents, including Frank Rizzi and Frank Cunha, and the proprietors of two competing businesses, Suzanne Laliberté and Debbie Purchase, complained to the city about it.

At a council meeting on Nov. 23, councillors passed a motion allowing the business to operate under certain conditions: a three-vehicle limit for parking, only one water delivery per day, a maximum of two employees, and a reduction in size to 40 square metres.

But the complainants then took the issue to the development appeal board, who upheld their appeal, thereby overturning the Nov. 23 council decision.

The board criticized city administrators for not providing correct information to Collin when she applied for a business licence last year, and accused them of having an “overwhelming bias” in favour of allowing the business to continue.

Home-based businesses located in trucked service lots are supposed to get council approval before issuance of a business licence.