Public Safety Committee Hears from Tom Zuppa Regarding Auto Dealers and Zoning Compliance
Building Commissioner Tom Zuppa was heard regarding the Class II Dealer License application of Gardner 5 Star Auto Sales. The Committee voted to recommend to the full City Council that the business be given 120 days to comply with certain requirements. Apparently, this was something not enforced in the past as other dealers in the City also need to be brought into compliance. Listen to the entire meeting on any device, CLICK PLAY.
Zuppa stated, “Generally, when parking plans, site plans are submitted, there are some criteria that we look for specific to zoning outside of the city code for dealer parking. That site plan should include specific dimensions for the actual vehicles for sale, which is no greater than 180 square feet, and that’s part of the city code. A couple of other things that we look at as far as zoning goes is access in and out of the parcel of land based on the business use, the number of employee and guest parking spaces, how those are delineated from the spaces for sale for vehicles. So we need those shown on the plans. We need to know where they are, the dimensions. Things like maneuvering aisles, interior driveways. We have a few different categories. They all require their own separate sets of dimensions.This particular application, as I stated, is lacking that level of detail. So that is something that we are going to look for moving forward, and it’s something that we’re going to hopefully try to bring the rest of the dealers within the city into compliance as well.”