Bruce Ryan wants to consolidate all his businesses in one location, but to do that the Corner Brook man needs to get a portion of the land he owns on O’Connell Drive rezoned.
That request is not sitting well with some residents in the area and on Thursday night the city held a meeting at the Corner Brook Civic Centre to give residents another opportunity to discuss the issue with council.
Ryan, who owns Bud’s Auto Body located at 678 O’Connell Drive, attended the meeting.
He plans to construct a new facility of roughly 4,500 square feet behind Bud’s, relocate Conway’s Towing there and incorporate a LineX franchise, a spray-in box liner business, at the site.
Ryan bought Bud’s Auto Body in January 2016 and Conway’s Towing in October 2017.
The present location for the towing service is leased and has no space for the LineX franchise. With the land at Bud’s he thought it made sense to locate everything there.
The auto-body shop is located in an area classed as light industrial in terms of land use designation and zoning. A towing operation is a permitted business in that zone and the former owner of the shop had tow trucks.
The portion of the property he wants to develop has residential land use designation and is zoned residential medium density.
It’s a change that was made in 2016 when Ryan did a land swap with a resident to accommodate the building of a house. At the time, the amount of land involved was listed as larger than what it was, a mistake he readily takes blame for.
More of the land was zoned residential in 2017.
“Now I’m asking for that to go back.”
But the city has received some opposition to his request.
Among the concerns he’s heard are that it’s going to be a junk yard, a salvage yard, it brings with it environmental concerns, it will be an eyesore, it will reduce property values, it will be a safety concern, will add to wear on the roads and the noise from the 24-hour towing operation will be disruptive.
Ryan said the perception people have of what it is and what it’s going to be are two different things.
“This is far from a junk yard or a salvage yard. This is not what it’s going to be.”
He plans to spend upwards of $500,000 on the facility which he thinks will fit in well with the neighbouring community.
“It will not be an eyesore. I’m not going to spend a half million dollars and then have an environmental problem on my piece of land.”
Vehicles will be temporarily stored there while awaiting transfer to body shops, are sold at auction or transferred elsewhere, but it Ryan said it will be an impound yard, not a junk or salvage yard.
“We don’t dismantle vehicles. We don’t strip down vehicles. We don’t do third-party vehicle repairs.”
As for the noise from the towing service, he said most after hour calls are done with a half-tonne truck and the average is less than three a day.
Georgetown Road resident Ross Edison was among the people who spoke out against the change at the meeting, which was attended by about 40 people.
He’s lived in the area for 15 years and said Friday that he is totally against it for many of the same concerns Ryan has heard.
He understands that Bud’s Auto Body was grandfathered into the area, having been there for many years, and people knew the footprint of the business.
“But adding the footprint for this industrial tow service in a residential neighbourhood is just totally inappropriate.
“Industrial businesses should be in the two industrial parks that we have here in town,” he said.
“I’m not anti-business,” he said, adding he understands what Ryan is trying to do, but the industrial park is where he should be doing it.
“I’m not going to build up in the industrial park. I don’t think the industrial park should move down in my residential neighbourhood,” he said.
He’s even for the city giving businesses free land to move into the industrial park.
“Bring lots of businesses into town, but not in the residential neighbourhood.”
What is the next step in the process
The next step is for council to decide to adopt the amendment, refuse it, or defer.
If council chooses to adopt, the amendment will be sent for Municipal Affairs for review. After that review, Municipal Affairs comments/recommendations, if any, will be reviewed by council.
Council then again chooses to accept, refuse, or defer.
If they accept, a public hearing is advertised requesting written comments and inviting representation to be heard by a commissioner
Source: The City of Corner Brook
