'Red tag' threatens new real estate office

Susan Sotelo's been looking forward to the grand opening of her real estate office in downtown Nevada City ever since she bought the building a few months ago.

And since she said she secured a business license 11 days before the moratorium on new offices moving into ground-floor spaces was implemented in downtown Nevada City, she thought she was still safe.

So at noon Friday, the Network Real Estate agent had a ribbon cutting ceremony complete with Chinese food from Szechuan Fred's, a giant tub of Halloween candy, and walls bedecked with black and white photos of downtown.

"I never thought this would happen," she said. "How great to own a piece of Broad Street."

Sotelo's honeymoon period could possibly be cut short - at least that is the way it seemed all Friday afternoon. Just an hour before the ribbon cutting ceremony, she said a county building department employee stopped by to tell her that he'd return that afternoon to "red-tag" her building for building permit violations. But Sotelo swears she's not in violation and that all she's done to the interior since the temporary halt was enacted was to put in carpeting and paint the walls.

It may sound strange that the county would get involved in a city problem, but since Nevada City doesn't have a building department of its own, it contracts that job to the county, City Councilman Steve Cottrell explained.

The rumored return of the county employee materialized just before 5 p.m., Sotelo said.

"He walked in and he goes, 'how'd it turn out?'" she said. Sotelo said he told her that he didn't see a problem and they'd address the issue again Monday.

"He was very nice. What a sweetheart."

Just a block away in his office in City Hall, City Manager Mark Miller said he wasn't even aware the Sotelo situation was even going on.

"I don't know anything about it, but a business license doesn't mean you can open a building necessarily," he said Friday afternoon.

The rules are a bit more complicated, he said.

The building, which was built in the 1860s, most recently was an antiques and clock shop, Miller said. This would mean that if it changed its use to a real estate office, it would require a change of use permit so the city could determine things such as parking impacts, he said.

"I've not seen any plans, any submittal," he said.

But regardless, Sotelo is poised to begin selling and has promised to keep listing posters out of the windows and allow local artists wall space to display their works free of charge.

"She's a special person," said Sotelo's assistant Suzann Potampa. "You know, she's somebody who wants to preserve this town."

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To contact staff writer Brittany Retherford, e-mail brittanyr@theunion.com or call 477-4247.