Junkyard plan draws ire, support
About two dozen opponents and supporters of a junkyard in Dunbar Township turned out for a 21/2-hour public hearing Wednesday before the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board. Property owner Dwaine M. Gordon of 2625 W. Crawford Ave. is seeking the recognition of the non-conforming use for the B-1 zoned property. If approved by the ZHB, it will be the eighth junkyard or salvage yard in the township. The hearing initially was scheduled for several months ago but was postponed.
ZHB members Ricardo Ciccone, Mark Morrison, Ed Newcomer and Pete Broskey opted not to make a decision at the conclusion of the testimony. They have 45 days to rule on the request.
Some of the testimony centered around whether the property was a junkyard before 1968. The county enacted its first zoning ordinance that year, and anything in existence before that year was allowed to continue operating. However, anything after 1968 has to follow the zoning ordinance.
Gordon, 53, who obtained the deeds to the two pieces of property at the intersection of West Crawford Avenue and Bell Drive in 1997 and 1999, said the site has been a repair shop and salvage yard for as long as he can remember. He said he plans to erect an 8- or 10-foot metal fence with slats to block the view of the junkyard.
Gordon, who also operates a used car lot in Connellsville and works as a mechanic and does snow removal for the township part-time, said his late father purchased the property in 1953, and it has been a salvage yard ever since. Gordon said years ago a gasoline station was on the site and he operated a used car lot there as well. He said that general between 10 to 20 and 100 cars are at the site at any given time, and there is no set time limit that he keeps vehicles on the property.
When attorney Doug Sepic called a supporter of the proposal to testify, Gordon’s brother Norman Gordon, 55, said junk vehicles have always been on the property. He said he remembered a time when he was a child and he took slingshots and busted windows in a line of cars on the property.
“I took a licking for that,” he said.
Don McCue, the attorney for those opposed to the petition, then called forward Robert Shilling, who formerly lived near the site and operated a car lot. Shilling said the site was a repair business and gas station but not a salvage yard. He said on one section of the property, brush and garbage were dumped in and then it was filled in with dirt and used as a car lot.
Neighbor Genevieve Logan, who has lived at 2703 W. Crawford Ave. for 65 years, said there were no junk cars at the site before 1968 and that none were at the site, only those being repaired, until 1980.
Terry Ross, 57, who lived nearby as a child, said he hunted at the site when he was 13 years old and remembered chasing rabbits from underneath cars.
“There were junk cars in the bottom from the time I was a kid,” he said.
McCue presented a petition to the ZHB with the names of people opposed to the request. He then asked everyone in attendance that was against the proposal to stand and give their name and address. Eleven people, including township supervisors Ron Keller and Tom Yekel and 1960s singing star and teen idol Fabian Forte, voiced opposition to the proposal.
Resident Dale Thornton said seven junkyards are situated in a one-square-mile area, and “somebody has to start doing something.” Joan Livingstone added that the property in question is in a bad area for traffic.
After the opponents voiced their views, 10 people, at Sepic’s request, rose to voice support, including Terry Ross and Norman Gordon.