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04/09/2019 12:00 AMTwo new businesses could be coming to town after the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) approved plans. Now, it’s up to other boards to approve or deny them.
At the April 3 PZC meeting, Ray Akovry was awarded permission to move forward with an application to set up a hotrod assembly service at 142 Grannis Street, a location that has stood empty for nearly 20 years. The business would be called Hotrod Motorsports and would receive new material and the kit required to assemble hotrod and classic vehicles from clients both in and out of state.
“It’ll be a state-of-the-art type facility,” Akovry said.
The business would serve upscale customers looking for the custom assembly of vehicles and Akovry said the mission would be to keep the business clean and up to date.
“Basically, picture it as a model but on a much larger scale; a more expensive scale,” Akovry’s attorney Nicholas Mingione said.
The application presented by Mingione calls for modification of the property to meet the business’s needs including installing garage equipment, dividing walls, and mechanical lifts.
Akovry and Mingione also requested allowances for some secondary uses such as general repairs should the business branch out into that direction.
“There’s a possibility, though it’s not on our radar right now, that we might want to do subsequent and secondary automobile repair,” Mingione said. “There will be no disposal of oil, no disposal of transmission fluid, no disposal of mechanical fluids.”
There are no plans to sell these vehicles to the public from the property or offer cleanups.
The PZC approved the plan with stipulations to ensure vehicles would not be displayed for sale outside.
The business would employ six individuals, though no more than three would work at a time. All assembly would take place indoors.
The application will move to the Zoning Board of Appeals and then on to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
“The hardest process is getting the state approval,” Mingione said.
PZC also approved an application to establish a 7,500 square foot self-storage facility at 5 Old Bradley Street. The approval is contingent on a revised plan with parking adjustments and landscaping considerations made for drainage and appearance purposes.
“There are houses down the road that people are going to be passing by and I wouldn’t want anything unsightly,” said PZC Chairman Bill DeMayo.
In the same meeting, the PZC denied an appeal of blight violations for two properties on Morgan Avenue owned by the same person, following the applicant’s failure to obtain a signed contract within the requested 90 days as stipulated by the commission. A lien has been placed on the properties and the owner’s next legal recourse would be to move the appeal to the superior court or remove the blighted condition.
The blight appeal first appeared on the PZC’s agenda at its November 2018 meeting.