An aerial fitness studio that wants Naperville to grant an exception to a city ordinance that prohibits non-retail stores from occupying first-floor space downtown will make its case this week to the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission.
More Top Picks Best Gifts For Photographers
AIR Aerial Fitness offers classes centered around core-strengthening exercises using suspended “hammock rigs,” according to its website. It wants to open a new location at 236 S. Washington St. in a space the company maintains is unsuitable for a retail business, according to documents submitted to the city.
The fitness studio, which will present it request to the commission Wednesday, requires city approval of a variance that will allow them to operate in an area zoned for downtown B4 use.
According to its petition, the property they’re seeking to lease has been vacant for quite some time after several businesses were unsuccessful operating out the storefront, which has an alley location next to the city’s central parking facility.
“Strict enforcement of this (rule) would ensure this property stays vacant due to the lack of visibility and little to no pedestrian traffic,” the petition said. “The aerial fitness use would bring a new and unique use to an otherwise unusable space.”
Naperville’s ordinance banning “service” businesses from opening in first-floor retail locations is a way to maintain downtown as an attractive, walkable destination for shoppers, said Bruce Hanson, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
“The primary purpose is that to have a thriving downtown in any community, you need each of the businesses and restaurants that are there to be effectively attracting everybody that is down there,” he said.
Any business that does not offer a good or service that can be sold directly to an everyday consumer — medical offices, legal practices, fitness facilities — can only rent downtown commercial space if it’s on the second floor of a building or higher, Hanson said.
“If you had, let’s just say, an office sandwiched in between a high traffic restaurant and a store, that’s essentially dead space for the shopper or the consumer that’s walking because they’re not paying attention to the office,” he said.
The commission will make a recommendation on the studio’s request to the Naperville City Council, which has the final say on whether a variance will be granted.
The commission has heard similar requests in the past. California Closets, a custom closet design company, filed a petition in 2018 to use first-floor space at 119 S. Main St., according to the commission’s online agenda archive.
The commission voted 7-2 to recommend the petition be denied because the business “did not meet the standards for granting a variance and that a showroom does not need a downtown location to thrive.”
Hanson said he was one of the seven commissioners who voted to deny the petition.
“(California Closets) is a showroom. There’s no retail sale,” he said. “I think with the location of that one, it would have been inconsistent with the use of that space in downtown Naperville.”
That said, the commission’s decision in that case will have no bearing on the aerial fitness business’ request, Hanson said.
“Each case is viewed on its own merit,” he said.
Kelli Duncan is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.