The former Mapledale Dairy will not become a deli. The board voted 5-0 to deny a use variance for the long-vacant former Mapledale Dairy at 825 West Dominick Street. The property owner wanted to open a small takeout sandwich deli with no indoor seating. Because the property sits in a residential (R2) zoning district, a deli is not an allowed use, so it required a use variance. The request had a long history. The same building won approval for a deli and convenience store back in 2021, and the owner bought it on the strength of that approval. But he was hit with a stop-work order for starting work without a building permit. By the time he finally got construction plans approved in 2024 (after going through three sets of blueprints at a cost of about $15,000) the original variance had expired. He returned this year with a scaled-back, deli-only version of the plan, but the board was unconvinced. Members said too much time had passed since the building last operated as a business, and the neighborhood had settled into a residential character that a deli would disrupt. Several also noted the application lacked the financial records needed to show the property could not earn a reasonable return as housing.

Neighbors and a city councilor lined up against it. The opposition was unusually strong. One resident after another spoke against the deli, raising concerns about traffic and a lack of parking, the safety of children near a school a half-block away, litter and people cutting through backyards, noise, and the effect on home values. The city's Fourth Ward councilor, Ramona Smith, also spoke against the project, telling the board the area functions as a stable residential neighborhood and warning that delivery trucks would have to back out onto a busy West Dominick Street, creating a safety hazard. The owner's attorney urged the board to give his client a chance, arguing that the building would decay and attract trouble if left empty. They noted it had already been stripped of its wiring and pipes by thieves. The owner also said they would install security cameras and a fence, as well as keep normal business hours. The board was sympathetic to the building's plight but not persuaded that a deli belonged on the block.

The board also took back a variance from 2012. In a separate action, the board voted 5-0 to revoke a use variance it had granted 14 years earlier, in 2012, for a property at 104 East Wright Street. That variance had allowed the owner to keep two trailers on the property for personal storage to support his home. But a city nuisance investigation later found the trailers were being used to collect, store, and take apart scrap metal. The board says this is a commercial salvage operation that was never approved and would itself require a use variance. The property had already been declared a public nuisance and cleaned up by city crews. No one appeared to speak on the owner's behalf.