Greensburg attorney Patrick Mahady calls it "a very simple issue." But a zoning ordinance dispute between the city and his client, Laurel Youth Ballet school owner Eleanor Tornblom, has gone on for more than two years.

Mr. Mahady, 65, said he was recently asked to represent Mrs. Tornblom by Laurel Ballet board member Paul Philips, of Champion.

"I think a resolution to this is feasible," said Mr. Mahady, adding that he had come to a preliminary agreement with the city during a hearing Oct. 28.

The dispute involves two parking lots behind 813 Highland Ave. The building, which is owned by Mrs. Tornblom and houses the for-profit Laurel Youth Ballet school, also hosts performances of the nonprofit Laurel Ballet, which Mrs. Tornblom helped to found.

City Planning Director Barb Ciampini said although one of the parking lots had been in violation of zoning ordinances since Mrs. Tornblom bought the building in 2004, the city did not take action until Mrs. Tornblom bought an additional, adjoining lot in 2006 and began to use it for parking.

"The city had to step in at that point," Ms. Ciampini said.

Ms. Ciampini said city ordinances require parking lots to be paved. Both of Mrs. Tornblom's are gravel.

But the situation is complicated by the fact that the second lot being used for parking is bisected by an underground culvert that provides drainage for a tributary of Jack's Run.

Ms. Ciampini said the culvert, originally constructed as part of the Mt. Pleasant Street Flood Project, was not built to bear the weight of parked cars.

Mr. Mahady noted he was not an engineer, but because a collapse of the underground culvert could affect drainage for many in the area, "nothing should be on this lot."

The agreement struck with the city requires Mrs. Tornblom to provide the city with a site plan, to be drawn up by Pittsburgh land surveyor Art Kromel, by February 2010.

Ms. Ciampini said the next step would be for Greensburg's planning commission to review and approve the plan and make recommendations for bringing the lots into compliance with city codes.

While Mr. Mahady said he was confident that an agreement could be reached, Mrs. Tornblom, 72, is less sure.

She said the first she heard about being in violation of ordinances was in a letter from the city in which she was summoned to a hearing.

She said she had gotten estimates to pave one lot and make the other into green space, but had found that just hiring the required architect, engineer and surveyor would cost more than $54,000.

"I don't know where I'm going to get it from," she said. "It's exorbitant."

She said if she continues to defy the zoning ordinance, the city could put a lien on the Highland Avenue building and eventually take it.

She also said she had gotten suggestions from people ranging from raising her students' fees to moving to another building.

"They say, 'Get it from your students,' but a lot of them are stretching already to pay for the classes because they love it," she said, pointing out that the economic downturn has hit arts organizations such as hers particularly hard.

As to moving, Mrs. Tornblom said she doesn't want to have to start over in a new place. She added that she and her daughters, Joy Uschak and Judy Tubbs, who also teach at the ballet school, put a lot of effort into improving the Highland Avenue building, which had been vacant.

"If I have to start again in some dump somewhere, I'll quit first," she said.

Mrs. Tornblom has been teaching dance in the Irwin and Greensburg areas for 50 years and estimates that her ballet school has more than 100 students enrolled.

At the suggestion of Harry Wilcox, then CEO of Westmoreland Regional Hospital, she started the Laurel Ballet in 1993.

An e-mail that Mrs. Tornblom said was written by one of her daughters has been circulating among those with connections to the ballet school and Laurel Ballet, asking supporters to call city officials and ask them to issue a variance to Mrs. Tornblom.

"We've got to fight this," she said. "You can't fight city hall, but this seems contrary to what we believe in."

Ms. Ciampini said the city planning commission was working with Mr. Mahady to "work this out in an amenable fashion."

Mr. Mahady said the whole problem could be considered one of property use.

"This just isn't as complicated as people want to make it," he said. "And I hope for Mrs. Tornblom's sake, as well as for her school and the Laurel Ballet, that we can work toward getting a plan on the table."

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