UPPER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — A popular local coffee shop chain says it may be in financial trouble because of a zoning dispute.
Nowhere Coffee Co. co-owner Lauren Vargas said Upper Macungie Township denied a permit for the business' planned roastery at 1115 Trexlertown Road, citing a zoning violation.
Lauren Vargas and her husband, Juan, who co-owns the business, operate two locations, in Emmaus and South Whitehall Township. The business recently was in the spotlight because President Joe Biden visited the Emmaus location this month.
“When you don't see bags of coffee on our shelves, when you see us closing early, when you see us running out of coffee, please take it up with them. The ball is in their court.”Nowhere Coffee co-owner Lauren Vargas
Nowhere Coffee planned to roast coffee beans at the facility as a way to grow the business. They have signed a lease on the property and bought a $50,000 roaster, Lauren Vargas said.
Vargas said the permit denial may hurt — or even shut down — the business.
“If we can't get up and running with this big roaster in a timely fashion, I'm not sure how we will survive,” she said.
Vargas wrote a blog post about the situation and posted the link on Facebook. She asked customers to speak during public comment at the Upper Macungie Board of Supervisors meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday.
In her blog post, Vargas predicted the effects of Upper Macungie’s permit denial.
“When you don't see bags of coffee on our shelves, when you see us closing early, when you see us running out of coffee, please take it up with them," Vargas wrote.
"The ball is in their court.”
Zoning dispute
A municipality’s zoning laws determine what can and can't be built and operated in certain areas. Some uses are permitted, others are permitted with certain oversight and others are not allowed.
The couples' new property is in the township’s Neighborhood Commercial district. One of the district’s permitted uses is a bakery, which Vargas argues is the closest use in the code to a roastery.
“A bakery takes flour, heated to about 400 degrees, packages it and sells it," she said. "We take coffee beans, heat them to about 400 degrees, package them in and sell them.”
But the township representative who notified Vargas of the permit denial said a roastery is classified as “food processing,” she said.
While the phrase “food processing” does not appear in the township zoning code, it does say that “manufactur[ing] and/or bulk processing” of food products is not allowed in the Neighborhood Commercial district.
Vargas said she reached out to the township before signing the lease to confirm what she needed to do to follow the township rules, but only received a blank copy of a form she already had submitted.
She has appealed the denial to the township Zoning Hearing Board, which she said cost her $800. The tentative date for the hearing is March 13.
Representatives from Upper Macungie Township did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
