Nobody’s jealous of Venus Envy

Halifax shop caught in bureaucratic spiral

As if the retail fallout from the pandemic wasn’t enough, Halifax bookstore/sex shop Venus Envy has had to overcome a whole series of obstacles this year.

“Genuinely, business has been fantastic,” says assistant manager Christine Ollier.

“The frustrations and the difficulties that we face as a business have nothing to do with folks’ enthusiasm for shopping. I think it has, generally, never been better.”

Nevertheless, after surviving more than 20 years operating out of the Tramway Building on Barrington Street in the downtown, Venus Envy was motivated to find a new location this year when its former landlord decided to renovate.

Owner Marshall Haywood found a suitable venue about a block away at 1727 Barrington St., next door to the Hali-famous Freak Lunchbox candy store.

Ollier, who is also the education co-ordinator at Venus Envy, is a self-professed stickler for following rules and procedure. She said she started the business occupancy permit application process well in advance of moving into the new space. Venus Envy has been operating out of its new location since July 2.

But when it moved down the street, it landed within an area designated by the city as a heritage district.

According to the rules, Venus Envy was categorized as an adult bookstore. Because of that designation, Venus Envy cannot get an official operating permit.

The heritage district rules were created in the 1970s to prevent a proliferation of strip joints and sex shops in the downtown. Today, those rules simply prevent Venus Envy from getting its permit to operate a business.

Haywood objects to his shop being described as an adult bookstore. He emphasizes that it is an educationoriented business aimed at teaching a sex-positive health lifestyle. The store is open to people of all ages, although there are some age restrictions on some items sold.

“I called the city to make sure there weren’t any issues (with the proposed move), specifically issues like exactly what happened, and was assured that, no, we have been existing on Barrington Street since 1999, why on earth would there be a problem?” Ollier said in an interview Monday.

She said authorities told her that Venus Envy should just proceed as normal, “no flags, no issues.” So the business was and is continuing to operate.

“As you may know, the municipal permitting system works like molasses,” said Ollier.

“I made a number of increasingly anxious phone calls, checking in on why things weren’t moving more quickly. I was told that someone would get back to me within 20 business days, every time I called. I don’t know, but if you do that math, 20 business days is a really long time.”

Small businesses like Venus Envy, said Ollier, have very little wiggle room when it comes to being open and bringing in revenue.

“If we’re not open to the public, we don’t recover from that.”

After trying to get a definitive answer from the municipality, she said, it was agreed that the business would proceed as normal because it was just a matter of staff being backed up due to the pandemic, vacations and heavy workloads.

Venus Envy enlisted Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South Downtown) to help find a resolution to the permit problem.

Mason said in an email that the term “adult bookstore” was taken out of the Halifax Centre Plan.

“But the heritage districts on Barrington are not yet in the Centre Plan, so Venus Envy is having trouble getting an occupancy permit because of the out-of-date and soon to be replaced morality-based rules in the ’70s bylaw,” he wrote, adding that he wants to help Venus Envy now.

Last week, Mason requested a staff report regarding the options for removal or replacement of the definition for “adult bookstore” from the downtown land use bylaw, pending the incorporation of the heritage conservation district bylaws into the regional centre land-use bylaw, commonly referred to as the Centre Plan.

That report has not yet been made public.

Meanwhile, the store operates without an occupancy permit. But that is only one aspect of the bureaucracy Venus Envy is dealing with, Ollier said.

“The first mission is to get an occupancy permit before you get your sign permit. OK, well I apply for the sign permit and they say, ‘Oh, so sorry, we can’t give you the sign permit until you apply for the development rightof-way permit.’ Which is the permit to allow you to install the sign.

“Well, OK, you do that and they say you can’t get the right-of-way permit until you apply for your non-substantive variance permit, which I think is just a bureaucratic word salad, no one has been able to tell me what that means, except it cost us $500.

“It’s a real spiral.”