Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

along the inside of the back perimeter fence with evergreen plantings that are full branching to the ground and spaced five feet apart. Concrete wheel stops will need to be installed to protect these plantings. The plantings are mainly for noise attenuation, so just making sure the noise is handled moreover than the screening. And the reasoning for the inside of the fence planting is because the fence is right on the property line. So to put plantings in front of the fence, that would be facing the residential would be off the property of the applicant. If any new outdoor lighting is proposed, an electrical permit will be required. And mentioning the requirement of at least the six foot high opaque fence is a condition, but like I said earlier, the applicant has an eight foot fence with opaque wrapping. Um, and a security gate is required within the conditions. So the proposed services will need to abide by the towing section of the York County code and multiple safety requirements are conditioned by the York County fire department, formerly known as fire and life safety. As for traffic concerns, uh, staff concluded that additional traffic generated by the towing business would be minimal, uh, and the operation would be less intensive than the auto repair business. The existing parking spaces along the front and sides of the buildings are appropriate to accommodate employees and customers of the business, as well as the needs of the tenants occupying the building. So in summary, the applicant is seeking authorization to operate a towing service, vehicle storage, and impound yard with office space. The proposed use is consistent with the comprehensive plan and a relatively low intensity use that would be compatible with the onsite and adjacent commercial slash industrial uses. The impound yard will cover the back portion of the parcel, and proposed conditions require visual and noise screening from the adjacent residential properties. Additionally, conditions have been proposed to ensure safe and operable conditions and desired storage implementation. Based on these findings, staff recommends approval of the application subject to the conditions outlined in proposed resolution PC26-18. So thank you for your attention. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. The applicant is also here.

I had one question, but you answered it. I was interested in why the shrubbery on the inside of the fence and why, if the eight-foot, why it's still needed. But for noise, that makes sense. So that's all I had.

I had that similar question, but answered. Can we define inoperable? Where are we getting that definition from?

Yeah, so the definition for inoperable is based off of the code. So actually, let me pull up the York County code for you all. Because I don't have it written down.

I think it's listed. Not being capable of operating.

Okay. Alright, so if it's not able to basically move under its own power, I just want to understand that that's as simple as it gets, because I would have the next question for that would be to move into the applicant, which would be, does the applicant believe that that is a reasonable expectation for what would be the use case at this at this location for the limit of only one, I want to make sure that this is Appropriate for the use there and I think that's an applicant question.

Yeah, absolutely Um, I have spoken with the applicant and he is more than happy to discuss that condition Excuse me, we do have a definition for inoperable if you'd like this is

Not in the zoning code. It's in a different section of the Motor Vehicles and Traffic Code of the ordinance. It's under the definition of inoperable abandoned motor vehicle. So the full definition is an abandoned motor vehicle which is inoperable and whose fair market value as determined by the commissioner of the revenue is less than the cost of its restoration to an operable condition. All right.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Okay. With that, now open to public hearing. And Chuck Worley is the applicant. And, Chuck, you have ten minutes. All right. As one of my fellow chairmen said, you don't have to take ten minutes if you don't want to.

Well, I speak in gusts of 30, so that's, uh, um, so I, I, Mr. Bro, thank you for coming by and looking at the property, getting your eyeballs on it. I kind of had the same concern. Um, I'm thinking something inoperable is, uh, we're waiting on a engine. We're waiting on a transmission and the chances of having one car there. I would think 10, 5 even would probably be a better number. But based on that definition, I mean, my car guy had a $28,000 uh truck there that had a 8 000 engine and he'd been waiting on the engine for three months so based on that definition i i don't think that i'm gonna have an issue but i still would like it more than one if it's a problem i'll deal with it but five even ten maybe would be the worst case i mean you could you can fit i mean they're probably 30 or 40 cars back there um i don't think there's going to be that many but i do think there's capacity for that um i think she said was eight or ten thousand square foot of of parking behind the building so um it's not a big rub for me but i i would like that number not to be one five or ten would probably be more comfortable but But everything else, I think she did a great job at explaining everything. The biggest thing is I've had a car auto repair guy there for almost 15 years who's been towing stuff there every single day for the last 15 years. So just switching from auto repair to towing company... Nothing's going to change about the property. I did go with, they both told me, Earl and, I'm sorry, thank you, told me to go talk to the residents personally, and I did. I banged on four doors, and how this is possible, all four of them were home. And all of them were, they're like, yeah, it's fine. I mean, we know there's a guy towing stuff there all the time. It's a car repair. One of the ladies actually uses him, the Bendel Auto, who just moved out. So I don't think it's going to be a big change for anybody. I doubt anybody's even going to notice, especially with the new black mesh that I put up. and now the new gate that's gonna be put up. Nobody's even gonna see it. Nobody wants English Motors back there. Like, not to put him down, but nobody wants that look, right? My office is there. One other thing is, it's kind of confusing. She said Worley's Home Services is there. You saw all the Worley's trucks. Bendel worked on Worley's trucks, so that's why the trucks were there. I actually own a consulting company now where I'm coaching companies and stuff to improve their revenues, but that is my office where I work out of every day coaching and helping other companies. So I don't want that to be an ugly place. So if you noticed, if you had time to read that 28-page contract that I wrote up for my new leasees, it is stringent, probably more stringent than yours. I had a $100 fine. I'm putting up signs of everybody has designated spots because having a car repair guy, he parks everywhere, right? So I'm an abused landlord. So everybody will have designated spots. Nobody's going to be parking outside of their place. Or like I said, in my lease, in my parking, two-page parking rules, it's a $100 fine for parking in someone else's spot. So anyway, I feel like it's going to be fine. And a lot less cars than what Benda was rolling through there. He moved from a 5,000-square-foot building to 9,000-square-foot building. So he needed more room. So it kind of worked out for both of us, him moving. All right. That's it. There's proof that I actually had spoken under three minutes.

Just a couple of comments. I would think the fact they're being towed, they're inoperable in some fashion. Most of the cars that end up there would be that. And then congratulations on being the most recent recipient of the York County Small Business Award. We appreciate that. Small is a little disnomer because I could get to work a lot quicker if there weren't so many orange and green trucks. So congratulations on your success and investment in the county. So thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, just a comment. I did also knock on the doors behind the location and I did speak with those owners as well. And from that vantage point, I certainly found it to be very reasonable. From the initial review, looking at, you know, that was part of the questions answered before I even got there was why did the shrubbery get identified as where it did. But truth be told, from the vantage point of the other side of the fence, it's a perfectly appropriate setup as it is. So on that you know, item that's addressed appropriately. So I'm happy with that. And then, yeah, just placing myself in the shoes of this situation. That was the other big item there that hit me was just the inoperable aspect and the reasonability of it. So I wanted to make sure that was properly addressed for you as well, just for your understanding of what you're signing on the dotted line there. But outside of that, I have nothing else.

Just a comment or a question on the hours. It shows 8 to 5, but because you're towing, you have to have access 24-7, correct? Yeah. So if somebody gets their car towed there, they have to be able to provide.

So for the last 15 years, I was actually talking to Bendel when he was kind of moving his stuff out there, and he's like, hey, are you going to be around Sunday? I said, yeah, I'm trying to clean all this stuff up. And he's like, well, I'm going to have like six cars towed here today, Sunday. So that one of the ladies, which you probably talked to, her name was, I think it was Victoria. But anyway, she called me and asked me about that. I said, well, were you home Sunday? She goes, yeah, I was working in the yard all day. I said, well, last Sunday, the day you were working in your yard, six towing tows were done that day. She goes, okay, so I'm not worried about noise then. Like, she's like, nothing's really going to change. So it has been, people have been towing there after hours. um for 15 years um i don't think it's going to be any any but i gave all four of those people my phone number so if they have personal cell numbers so i just want to make sure that what's in here meets the expectation that people can pick up 24 7 not just eight to fives that's they can pick up between eight and five because that's the only time anybody's going to be there but is there going to be a guy picking up a truck at eight o'clock dropping it off and leaving probably

But if they're toned for police departments, you have to have 24-hour access.

They will, yeah. The tow trucks would be accurate. I'm saying if they wanted to pick up a car.

Yeah, you have to be able to pick up 24-7.

Well, that is not, yeah, I don't run a tow truck. So that may be accurate. Yeah, I don't know. I may be speaking out of turn then. I know they'll be manned 8 to 5. Somebody will be there. Okay.

Yeah, I had the same question, and I was concerned too. Is it too restrictive for us to state that it's 8 to 5 or add a statement that it's 8 to 5 with towing taking place?

Well, gentlemen, I did just want to interject. The number of cars that can be there at any time in any condition is within your purview, not mine. But I did want to give a little bit of information about police towing versus private towing. I think maybe there's an assumption this is automatically a standardized police towing lot. It may be. It may not be. We don't know. As counsel for the Towing Advisory Board, I can tell you that generally the pickups are intended to be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., normal business hours. If folks want to get an after hours or holiday pickup, they can do so. They have to make arrangements. That's part of the reason that for these police use towing lots that phone numbers have to be posted, obviously, and the contact information has to be readily available to the owner. They can call and make that arrangement. But just because they utilize police initiated towing doesn't mean that the lot is open 24 seven.

I kind of took it as I'm open 8 to 5, but my guys will be at your house at 7.30 if you've got no AC. So I'm thinking maybe it's an on-call thing. Thank you for that information.

The police-initiated towing only comes in a situation where an owner of a vehicle for whatever reason cannot or will not have it moved. If it is illegally parked, not necessarily incapacitated, blocking the roadway, It could be incapacitated if the owner was a victim in an accident, was taken to the hospital. It could also be that there was a drunk driver who was placed under arrest and cannot legally take there and there's not someone there legally able to take the vehicle for them. Then the police must have responsibility for getting it towed and the owner has to go and pick it up. But all these things are in very limited circumstances. The towing ordinance doesn't apply to anything that has anything to do with privately engaged towing between private parties.

So I guess the answer is this is not restrictive, correct?

I did a little poll with our zoning and code enforcement inspector who goes out and frequents these. And she said it's rare that one of these will have more than one inoperable vehicle at a time. She said, you know, every once in a while she'll, you know, when she does an inspection, she'll see one and she'll just remind them that they have, you know, they were only supposed to have it for 30 days and they should only have one. And, and it's never been problematic. She told me for them to, to move them out. She said most of the cars she sees in these are inoperable. They operate, sorry, there's too many N's in here. They operate just fine. They were towed there for whatever reason. Maybe they broke down for a short amount of time. Most of the cars aren't there very long because this isn't a repair facility. They just bring them there to put them in the place where until the owner says, I want you to send it to blah, blah, blah garage or whatever. So most of the times the cars aren't sitting there a long time because there's storage fees and all those kinds of things that build up over time. So she said she's not really seen a concern with the inoperable vehicles. And we've not had any concerns about the operation times. Most of the time people are fine. I mean, as Mr. Worley said, you know, whenever you, have an operation like this, you may have someone bringing a car in at 2 o'clock in the morning, but it's not very often you're going to have that kind of thing happening.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any applicants for anyone to speak. Is there anyone in the audience who wants to speak? With that, then I close the public hearing and I'll let you start.

nothing so mine would be earl based on what you said i mean we were just told do we are we able to increase that from one or we're saying that that's probably never going to be a problem so it's not worth i mean the the reasons in there because because of all the junkyards all the yards you know those kinds of problems we don't want to find have that occurring but i mean you have as miss uh

Constituto said you have the option to increase it if you want. I mean, we can change the resolution and make it an R if you want to up it by a couple numbers. That's completely up to you.

I would be up for that, but I don't know what the other commissioners feel. I don't have any.

I certainly have no issue increasing it to Five? I mean, by no means. At the end of the day, that lot is only so big anyways. So, I mean, I don't even think you could fit ten inoperable vehicles over there. But I think five is more than enough. I mean, granted, you can get tricky, I'm sure. But, yes, I'm very comfortable with increasing the number in that regard.

I'd be okay with that. Five? Absolutely. I'm good with it.

So we'll amend condition number five to change one to five?

Yes.

Can I ask one more question?

Can I go to the podium? Go to the podium.

Just one more question about, and even Mr. Borelli mentioned the bushes and the need for those bushes. The overgrowth and brush on the other side I think is accomplishing what you want these bushes that are going to be two foot high. Let me give you a picture. This is a two foot high bush behind this podium that you can't see for the next eight years until it's eight foot tall. I'll do it. If you tell me to do it, I have no problem doing it. I, I just don't think there's a need for it because of the, and actually you brought that up when we were in the, is the overbrush in the, the counties, um, Ditch, the county's ditch, it's kind of overgrown. You can't even barely see the fence, let alone through the fence because I put the black mesh up a couple months ago. So I don't know that we need the bushes. If you tell me I have to put them in, I'll put them in. I just don't see a need for them because of the overgrowth on the opposite side of my fence.

I'll just be devil's advocate here in that you know it is a York County drainage easement so at any time the county could go in and clear all that brush out and then there's no vegetative buffer so you know the reason we had we had said for mr. Worley to put it on his side was just to because he owns that property and he can make sure that those those at least on that side they're there you know beyond the fence is really outside of that control so whoever owns the ditch i believe it's a york county drainage easement you know it could be cleared at any time sure i've been there since 2006 i bought that building those trees are bigger now than they were in 2006. they have not been cut and they're usually not cutting unless it becomes a problem so let's keep our fingers crossed it never becomes a problem but i mean staff would argue to keep it just in case it's it's one row It's not excessive, as we've seen. In other places, we try to do more landscaping than that. But because of the limitations on the size of the property and such, we recommended a single row in this case. OK. I'll just follow that.

Thank you. So we're going to keep that as it is, right?

Yeah. Mr. Chair, I'll move PC 26-18R.

The motion by Mr. Chamberlain is to adopt PC 26-18R to authorize a special use permit to establish a towing service and impound yard at 126 and 128 Production Drive. Mr. Borelli?

Yes.

Mr. Smith? Yes. Mr. Wassmer? Yes. Mr. Chamberlain?

Yes.

Mr. Brooks?

Yes.

Motion passes.

okay with that we let's go to old business no old business tonight no new business new we got new business no new business um staff reports um so you all have your development activity report um i'll note that stanley park auto and mike's towing that was approved at the july board meeting Some site plans of note that you'd probably be of interest in. The tree planting and commemorative path, that was the Battlefield Trust property there off Crawford Road. So they've gotten approval for putting in that trail and parking area and then doing the tree plantings there. So hopefully we'll see some movement on that project here soon. Also the Paws Pet Resort, a commercial kennel up off of Lightfoot Road, that was approved. The site plan was approved. And that should get under construction here soon. We also have a new Chipotle restaurant coming in up off Moore Town Road. It's going in next to close to where the Dutch Brothers is going to be. So that's an interesting sight happening there. And I think we just learned that a Culver's ice cream place is going to be going in next to it. I think we got the plan in for that recently too. And that's all I had highlighted, so.

Do you have any new staff to talk to?

Yes, that was next. That was next, okay. So one thing before we get to that is We have no applications for your next meeting, so Mr. Brooks, we contacted Mr. Brooks and he was okay with us canceling the next meeting. I'll also send an email reminder out to you, but the next meeting has been canceled because we have no applications for that. And then I'd also like to introduce Sean McNash. He is our new senior planner. Sean comes with eight years of experience from Gloucester and other experience from other places before that. He's got two young children and is a Spider-Man fan like me. And then I'd also like to introduce Bo Clayton, who is the new assistant county administrator in the new ombudsman position that the county created for business development. Bo has hit the ground running and has done a lot of great work already since just the short amount of time he's been here. He had us in here today talking to a new group downstairs about a new grocery store coming in and so forth. So he's doing a great job. I'm very appreciative. And if you ever have any questions for him, good conversational, so please reach out to him and introduce yourself. And other than that, that's all I had.

Mr. Chairman, we do have a committee report that we can just give a quick update on the bylaws review. We met pretty extensively last week, and we have another meeting planned for next week, and I think we'll have a good set of bylaws Commission's review with the next available meeting. Anything else, Dan?

I will just say that we did kind of one of the items that I'm sure sparked that conversation was our meeting time frame. So we did have a lengthy conversation about that. And it does seem like the 7 o'clock time frame is most likely going to stick around. So just we did spend some time on it. I suggested 642 by the sundial, but I was shot down so Sounds like seven o'clock probably gonna stay.

All right anything else No more Commission no more Commission reports with that I'll adjourn this meeting. There you go