Zoning board gives property owner time to construct fence
?The Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board voted Wednesday to give the owner of a Dunbar Township business six months to install a fence that was supposed to be erected years ago.
Dale Malinzak of Industrial Recovery Services Inc. acquired the 14-acre site on Route 119 in October and has been cleaning it up.
Malinzak was requesting a special exception to amend the fencing requirements of a resolution made in 2008 for the property. When the 2008 resolution was made, it gave the property owner at the time 90 days to install an opaque fence around the former salvage yard, but a fence was never built.
Malinzak said currently a tenant, Ken Mitchell, sells used cars on the front of the property and another tenant is storing pipes and other materials as part of his business.
Zoning board solicitor Gretchen Mundorff said the reason a fence requirement was put in the prior resolution was to avoid an eyesore.
Mundorff said the pipes and other materials that are being stored are “every bit as bad as a salvage yard and just as much of a blight to the community.”
Malinzak said the company that is storing the pipes is moving to another location in a few weeks, and the front of the site will be used for car sales, and potentially equipment sales.
Malinzak said recycling of cars is done at the site now, not salvage or selling of parts.
Former owners include Scott Cornish and Fred Zeigler.
Malinzak said he wants to come into compliance and has done a lot of cleanup work at the site.
After a discussion regarding where equipment sales would fall into the ordinance and how installing an opaque fence around it would hinder the sales of equipment, the zoning board approved a motion to amend the fencing requirements of the prior action.
The fence must be installed around the business, with the exception of where vehicle and equipment sales are conducted. Malinzak was given six months to comply.
In other action, the zoning board approved requests for “non-conforming use and variance by estoppel” for residences owned by James W. Nickman in North Union Township.
The two homes on Gardner Avenue were built in 1967 and 1975. However, two separate parcels are needed if the homes, which are in a B-1 general zone, are sold.
Although homes are not allowed in a business zone, Nickman said he wasn’t aware of the zoning classification when they were built.
Because the home built in 1967 predates zoning in the county, which was enacted in 1968, it is allowed by non-conforming use. However, the home built in 1975 was allowed because no action has been taken to dispute its construction.
Nickman said other homes on the street were built in the 1990s. Nickman’s attorney, Simon John, said the county hasn’t taken action against the other homes, which were built after permits were received.
Although the homes are in a B-1 zone, on the opposite side of the road, which is a residential zone, there are no homes. Mundorff said it sounds like the area all needs to be rezoned.
A hearing for a special exception/vested rights for a contractors yard and a variance from the maximum acreage requirements in Perry Township filed by Miller and Roedbuck Inc. was postponed to a later date.
Richard Bower, attorney for the applicants, requested the continuance, saying additional issues need to be resolved before a hearing can proceed.
An enforcement notice was issued in March, and the firm then sought a special exception hearing to come into compliance. The hearing was rescheduled for 10?a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31.