Bridgeport - She should have seen it coming.
A psychic who offers fortune-telling services out of a Main Street home has been issued a cease-and-desist order for running an illegal business in a residential zone.
The order from the city's zoning enforcement officer was issued Dec. 4 to property owner Joseph Voll for his tenant's illegal use of the 4890 Main St. property, which is in a Residential-A zone. Home businesses are allowed only in a residential home with approval from the city's zoning boards.
The psychic refused to give her name Wednesday, but according to yellowpages.com, the phone number listed on the signs is that of Tiffany Tina Marks.
Two signs hung in the home's windows and a lawn sign advertising the psychic business were posted without permission, and have yet to be removed.
Contacted at home, Marks said she filed an application with the city's zoning department to legalize the business shortly after being notified of the cease-and-desist order last month, but Zoning Official Dennis Buckley and Zoning Enforcement Officer Milford Thompson said Wednesday they have not seen any application for the property.
Marks also said she has two other offices, one at 690 Beechmont Ave. and another in Fairfield. She said she has been a psychic all her life and does palm readings, tarot card readings and can read psychic vibrations emanating from people.
Marks said she does not expect to be living in the home much longer, just until Voll wins permission for a plan to build a Starbucks and bank on the property. The white, single-family home Marks' family has rented for about 12 years would be demolished to make way for the development.
Voll's development proposal was denied by the Zoning Board of Appeals in September, and then a slightly altered application submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission was withdrawn. Hundreds of neighborhood residents signed petitions and spoke out against commercial development of the property, citing concerns about traffic at the busy intersection of Main Street and Old Town Road.
Voll said Wednesday that he sent his tenants a letter asking them to take down the signs and cease operating the business at the site. "I don't know what else to do," he said.
