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Kragen will appeal vote on use permit
If it were up to the Zoning Adjustment Board, Kragen Auto Parts would shut its doors forever at California Street and University Avenue.
With Board members Nancy Carleton and David Freeman absent, the ZAB voted 5-2 Thursday evening to revoke the use permit of the business, which has been at war with its neighbors for at least five years.
Board members Rose Marie Pietras and James Peterson opposed the revocation.
Kragen attorney Bill Segesta says the company has no intention of shutting down the 12-year-old store without a fight. It will challenge the Zoning Board’s decision at the City Council level.
Kragen’s neighbors have lodged numerous complaints with city officials about spare parts left about, people working on cars outside the establishment and resultant oil and other contaminants caked on the street. They went to mediation with the business, and in 1998, the ZAB attached formal conditions to Kragen’s use permit.
In its vote, the board majority agreed with the zoning officer’s conclusions that Kragen violated the conditions imposed on it.
The staff findings asserted that Kragen:
• Failed to pick up litter and sweep around the establishment.
• Did not perform adequate professional surface cleaning of oil and other contaminants around the establishment.
• Allowed its customers to work on their vehicles outside the establishment.
Two ZAB members argued on the side of the business, however. Pietras said she noticed “remarkable improvement” when she went by the business recently.
And Peterson agreed, saying the business has been responsive to the city’s demands. Moreover he argued that Kragen provided employment to “minorities and poor whites.”
“I am not prepared to vote to revoke the permit to put these people out of work,” he said.
But most of the board members said the business had a pattern of complying when the city turned up the heat, then becoming lax later on.
“There’s a certain cyclical aspect to this,” ZAB member Gene Poshman said. “We’ve got neighbors who have to live with this thing.”
