Permanent makeup artist in St. Pete pushing for update to city’s zoning laws

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — On Wednesday, a St. Pete enterprise proprietor will ask town to change its zoning laws so she will maintain understanding of her residence.“I’ve labored for this for 5 years. I like my job, I like what I do, and I’ve labored so onerous to get right here. I can not stop,” mentioned Emily Hedrick, a everlasting makeup artist.Hedrick owns a everlasting makeup enterprise, tattooing lips, brows and extra. She additionally affords nipple tattooing for breast most cancers survivors after reconstruction surgical procedure.Hedrick says she purchased her residence two years in the past, particularly as a result of it was zoned for mixed-use.Her home-based business was cleared as a “magnificence and makeup service,” however not too long ago, a special zoning officer categorized the enterprise as a tattoo parlor, which technically means she’s working illegally.Hedrick says she feels the city’s zoning laws are outdated and don’t replicate the expansion of the sweetness business. She additionally says this impacts a few dozen different St. Pete companies like hers.“So if this interpretation of the code doesn’t get modified, we’ll all have to shut our doorways sadly and relocate,” mentioned Hedrick.We needed to go in-depth on this challenge, so we spoke to a neighborhood legal professional. He instructed us he feels the zoning laws might not replicate the present state of the sweetness business and do not distinguish between everlasting makeup and tattoo parlors.“You need to distinguish what’s being executed for the underlying security of the shoppers and that is the entire underlying foundation for these zoning laws, having these codes for cities to implement,” mentioned Charles Gallagher, an legal professional at Gallagher and Associates Law Firm.Hedrick says the city’s zoning laws surrounding tattooing have not been up to date since 1977.Hedrick has three hearings with town, the primary is Wednesday. We’ll update you as soon as we get phrase of how these hearings go.