Starkey raises used car lot proliferation and enforcement

1:49:15that's a great thing that happened last week. The other thing I want to talk to you about was, well, our um used car lots. And you know this has been a real challenge for uh code enforcement And the residents, especially in my district, and I Jack, I see it happening on fifty-two. And I don't know your district as well, but I'm sure it's gonna happen three oh one. Some of these roads where every you know any business that closes the next day it's a

1:49:45used car lot. I guess there's takes very little to get into this business. I don't know. But this business here was a business on mile stretch that um uh took materials out of old TVs and sold them um on the internet. And now he's a used car lot. And that in your neighborhood That just does not look that's just not acceptable. There are homes right behind him. He doesn't have that 70 foot buffer.

1:50:15So he's not legally supposed to be a car lot. And we you can drive dip down here at any time and they're working on the cars in the front there, which is also a violation. So um uh more pictures please.

1:50:31That's it indeed.

1:50:32Oh I well I sent the uh farm store. Okay, here's the farm store. This one popped up a couple weeks ago. Um This this was a a closed up farm store on the corner of Trouble Creek. and um Grand Boulevard. And I d and then I drive by and then whoa there you go it's a used car lot. So our code did go out there and told them they had to cease because they didn't have the proper permission to be a car

1:51:02lot. Um But it's really, really out of control. Um We have documented oh here's one on nineteen. This is what this looks like. Now if you think that's good for business is for us to attract good business on nineteen, look at that. You can't even drive into that car lot.

1:51:25restaurants close up, they become car lots. So uh then there's another view of that one. So um This uh

1:51:34The city of Newport Ritchie saw that this is a very important thing. is becoming a real challenge for them and a real eyesore as they're trying to clean up their community. So they passed a moratorium. I've given you all um an ordinance uh about um a moratorium on um used now theirs is new or used automobile. I I I would like for us to come back and discuss used automobiles. Um sales facilities, not new. When when

1:52:05it's a new uh car facility, they come in and they go through the proper process with our staff, but the The used car lots do not. And a couple of years ago Denise and I we held an open house in this room. We went up and down, we made a brochure, we went to every one of these you know, sorry, illegal use car lots and said you do not have permission to do what you're doing just because you have that That um little paper that you get from the state. and um

1:52:36come in and we'll tell you what the steps are that you have to go through. to become a legal business in the field that you're you you're in And we did have maybe twenty uh twenty of those guys come in. I think only two stay went through the process and became legal and the rest are still out there operating illegally. So It's more it's more than we've been able to handle. Um I'd like to s so I'd like to ask if you would support us

1:53:07talking about a moratorium while we work on fixing um our code to um make it Uh easier for our staff to be able to deal with this situation that's getting out of control.

1:53:22Um Commissioner Starkey let me ask you a question. So and I and I understand what those places you're talking about.

1:53:30like that. But what about what I don't want to hurt, and anybody else can jump in on this is I there's some examples um

1:53:40use vehicles that um have obviously done a great job of going through the process. I use like Williams Automotive Group for an example over on Wesley Chapel Boulevard. Um built you know, a building from the ground up. You can't tell if it's new or used. I mean they still have the s the the sh nice showroom area. Um everything's kept up nice. And we there's a few others like that and then they s they look just like, you know, new car lots. So I think there's a distinct difference between those

1:54:10instances and those types of facilities.

1:54:14Yeah, no. And those guys come in and go through the process. Yes. It's these fly by night ones that are turning up. We we got another one on Mile Stretch in the last few weeks and uh they are There are so many uh in my district that are not supposed to be there.

1:54:30So

1:54:30how

1:54:31can we how how could we look at cleaning up the areas, you're you're talking about at the same time

1:54:39Not

1:54:39hurt those that are Sor because a loss of remember a lot of

1:54:42the new ones

1:54:43sell leaves too. So

1:54:45Well, I I don't know, I'd have to ask Jeff.

1:54:51Um but I see them opening up on forty-one as well. You are having that problem happen on forty-one.

1:55:00look at a way that we're not harming the ones that are going through

1:55:05Right.

1:55:08I know Jeff Jeff's dying to speak over there. Look at him. Look at him.

1:55:12So as as I explained to the Commissioner when we talked about this, uh Uh uh you can do a moratorium if you have a plan on fixing the problem through your land development code in some period of time.

1:55:29as I think we also talked, I'm not sure that if you do a moratorium And folks are oper are Opening up illegally now. Stop. I'm not sure they're gonna respect a moratorium any more than they're gonna respect the land development code. So y I think the first thing you need that code needs to identify or the planning department needs to identify is Mm-hmm. What is caught what's

1:55:59the trigger? What What is it that they're that Why can't we do the enforcement on the ones that are opening up if they don't in fact meet the land development code?

1:56:11Well and I can tell you having worked with code on this problem for a number of years and with Christy Sims and with Patrick. Patrick and I have driven a drive d we've done drive-bys, we've got spreadsheets. Code's not equipped to they don't drive by and see a new business and go, Oh, I wonder if they're legal. They that's not in their mindset. They're going to a house where someone's complained that there's trash in the front yard. It they don't they don't Have a person or the knowledge

1:56:41of how to go about to see if it's a properly placed Business that's meeting all the requirements that we have. And going back to what you said about land development code, one of the reasons one of those is still open is Because Christy um they were going to court and they had a court date and the day before the court date We the staff put a hole on it because We had talked we had a big meeting with with Terry and the the issue is on some of these is that our code requires a

1:57:12seventy foot Buffer. But from the back from the business to a residential home, all right? And um we had this problem with a a business on Gun Highway. And In the urb you know, in an urban setting like nineteen, well there's nobody that's gonna be able to qualify for that because their lots are barely seventy feet deep. So we were uh supposed to be readjusting that part of the land development code. And also there is a

1:57:42thought that, you know, maybe if if you only have space for x X amount of space you can't be a a used car lot because you physically don't have enough room for people to be able to drive in and park because if you drove down nineteen and you looked at a lot of these, you can't even drive into the lot. Because all the cars are all over. There's no parking anywhere. You have to park in the middle of their You know, you have to park behind a car i in the middle and and forget any

1:58:12amenities of restrooms or anything. So Um So there are some fixes that need to happen for some of these guys to be able to even get through a process to be legal.

1:58:23But if they are if there's a seventy-five foot setback in the code currently against residential, which there is, and they don't need it, then they can't be there.

1:58:34Well you then talk to your team because they're all over nineteen. They are up and down nineteen. And your team. 'Cause I I I'm the commissioner, but I'm I'm the one seeing I'm the one seeing all the violations. I don't know why no one else is seeing them. They're and I get complaints all the time about what what nineteen looks like. I'm really trying to clean it up. I got a guy who's coming in spending fifty something million dollars on nineteen, but he don't wanna see all that, you know.

1:59:04I'm gonna go to Commissioner Mariano if I can.

1:59:10I'm Jack.

1:59:17Uh one of the troubles with code, like we went through with the with the golf course or uh the Land uh

1:59:26is if someone's in violation Code works them to get in into compliance. Now by the time that could take, that could take six, seven months and maybe That's even slowing down getting them in into speed as well. So it's it's definitely gonna be an issue that we you know, can look at. Uh and I and I appreciate what you're saying as far as we gotta make sure that It it look it looks decent up there and that's back to landscaping as well. So

1:59:48And build and and building maintenance. I mean these guys we've look look at what that guy was trying to do with that farm store. He wasn't improving the building at any.

1:59:56Right.

1:59:57You know, they don't they're not an asset. And if you've watched the news, a lot of them are predatory. I'm not talking about Williams. I'm talking about these ones that rent the car. And then if you're, you know, six hours late, they come and

2:00:12Yeah.

2:00:12Um possess it and they sell it to someone else the next day. So

2:00:16you're th and again I wanna I don't wanna pick on anybody either, but s some the reports you're referring to are some of those um buy here, pay here type of operations with very, very high interest rates for people, unfortunately, that You know, they may or may not have dirt credit d dirt credit fell in hard times and then if you're like you said, if you're a day late on the payment, they come and get the vehicle and Yeah. Yeah. I understand Z I know he's out here talking about proliferating.

2:00:45And you guys had some nice dialogue. Maybe you guys can get together and figure out if there's a way to kinda work through some of this. I mean,

2:00:53and I think a way through the land development code that we could deal with is is a a used car lot has to be a certain size. And then we can get rid of a lot of 'em. I know their grandfather. But if they're legal. Uh but if they're not legal and they're not a certain size, you can't you can't do it. So

2:01:11Yeah.

2:01:11So I think

2:01:13the solution is to identify the ones the Commissioner believes are illegal And r and have code and planning department determine whether or not there somehow non conforming or whether they're truly illegal, and then go through the code enforcement process. But I am not aware that We've ha we have anything pending in the county attorney's office With regard to citations for for these for a whole bunch of used

2:01:43car lots that have not been moved forward to the court system unless they're pending because of the COVID stuff.

2:01:51Who uh so who in the county is responsible for oversight of this?

2:01:59Well I mean code enforcement would check for the code violations and then work with planning and then when it became a case with the county attorney's office.

2:02:08So since they are reactionary and not um Proactive. Does someone have to make a complaint on every single car lot first for them to do it or how how would we get them to proceed to Do it.

2:02:28Terry's try trying to say are you wanting to say something? Terry,

2:02:31do

2:02:32you want to come to the podium? That's a lot of work for code because they're all over the county.

2:02:38Yeah. Well it's it's a lot of work for any department.

2:02:41Yeah, but it's a problem. We look like Yeehaw Junction out there.

2:02:46They only have one stoplight, don't they?

2:02:50But Commissioner Oakley is not going to help you if you're not going to be able to Your issue is enforcement.

2:02:58Well, I think it stops uh Benedetto's from being a car lot. And um You know, I don't know. Maybe that's a good site for a car lot. I don't know.

2:03:07Um Terry, did you have anything you'd like to add at this time or

2:03:11Well uh to the point of uh size and uh setting a threshold, a lot of the uh used car lots are happening in C two zoning districts and the minimum lot size is about fifteen thousand square feet. That's for C two zoning. Um The other the current restrictions in the land development code for for car dealerships in the C2 zones is that they typically have to have either a PD future land use, an ROR future land use, or a COM future land use accompanying them. So that kind of narrows

2:03:41the window a little bit in terms of what C two zoning districts can uh accommodate. Um the car dealerships. So you have to put those two things together when you think about uh the size restriction.

2:03:58So fifteen thousand square feet is It's it's a small it's a fairly small lot when you're looking at commercial property. Oh yeah, for sure.

2:04:06Are you saying they can be a used car lot if it's fifteen thousand?

2:04:09That's the minimum area of a uh C two lot. It must be at least 15,000 in order to be

2:04:17zoned

2:04:17C2.

2:04:18Code's gonna have to look up the lot size, however you do that. I don't know how you do that.

2:04:24I just

2:04:27has a lot of sites on there, we can go to the property appraiser's website and get the information too. So I mean they all ha they are work in a priority process and uh would say you know

2:04:38necessarily

2:04:38health and safety. So

2:04:39right. And so therefore I have these proliferating and the problems getting worse and worse and worse. I mean they're coming up They're coming up Grand Boulevard. Like I said, we got a third one on Mile Stretch when I already had two illegal ones and I have a third one. And one of the ones on Mile Stretch at the corner of Mile Stretch in Grand. He's nowhere near fifteen thousand square feet. He might be three thousand square feet. But he did put some landscaping in anyway. But um There's um so

2:05:09I'm wondering how we even got th got through with Denise's people if you have to be that size to be a car lot. But Uh they're com they're common everywhere. They're coming everywhere in I think we really need to pay attention to it.

2:05:24Well why don't can I make one more suggestion?

2:05:27Yeah.

2:05:27It's what about and I and I po apologize, I forgot the name of it, the special code enforcement team. that we have teamed up with the SO and the Attorney Attorney's Office. We call that what?

2:05:38HRE HRE

2:05:39HRE

2:05:40THERE Enforcement

2:05:41Maybe that needs to go that route. route.

2:05:43For a little while, that would be great if they could get it. Yeah.

2:05:46Some of them.

2:05:48And I know I have sixty in my area, but um I don't you know, fifty two. And forty one, I I haven't driven forty one lately. But last time I saw a bunch popping up on uh there. Yeah. You know, they're s they're Doing Any business that closes up it becomes a used car lot. It's it's amazing.

2:06:10Yeah, I understand.

2:06:13Okay. Well I think I got my message too.