To help maintain an orderly and aesthetically pleasing downtown area, officials from the Petal Board of Aldermen recently took a look at an existing ordinance regarding automobile repair, washes and collision shops in the city limits.
The matter was addressed during a December 5 public board meeting, when shop owners were invited to discuss the issue with aldermen regarding enforcement of the ordinance – specifically, Section 7.41.1 – that enforces eight guidelines that owners must adhere to.
“For the most part, all of our mechanic shops are in the downtown area,” Mayor Tony Ducker said. “Obviously, we want to have a nicer, better-looking, safer-looking downtown area.
“(Mostly) our businesses are ran like they need to be ran from that standpoint, and I don’t want to get into a situation where I’m telling them how to run their business. I think it’s too restrictive, the ordinance as it is presented currently, but at the same time, the way that some of the shops are working right now is not going to be good (enough).”
The current ordinance sets forth the following guidelines:
- The aforementioned businesses shall have a minimum frontage along the principal street of 150 feet, and a minimum area of 35,000 square feet.
- Separation shall be made between the pedestrian sidewalk and the vehicular parking and maneuvering areas with the use of curbs, greenbelts and/or traffic islands.
- Driveways shall be designed to accommodate the type and volume of vehicular traffic using the site, and located in a manner that does not create a traffic safety or congestion problem.
- Vehicle sales shall not be permitted on the premises.
- Any work including repairs, servicing, greasing and/or washing motor vehicles shall be conducted within an enclosed building located not less than 40 feet from any street lot line, and not less than 10 feet from any side lot line.
- No more than one curb opening shall be permitted for each 50 feet of frontage or major fraction thereof along any street.
- Outdoor storage or parking of vehicles, except for two private automobiles per indoor stall or service area of the facility, shall be prohibited between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. No junk, debris, abandoned or dismantled automobiles our automobile parts, or similar materials, shall be stored or allowed to remain on any lot in any general commercial district.
- All outdoor areas used for the storage of motor vehicles waiting for service shall be effectively screened from view from abutting properties and public streets.
“it’s something that we haven’t been enforcing the ordinance as it is, because it would be very detrimental to a couple of the businesses,” Ducker said. “We want to be business friendly, so obviously we want to have conversation with folks and improve it that way.
“We have gotten some complaints from time to time, but I think this is something that gets kicked up every four years when election time comes around. This is just an opportunity to have the time to sit down with the stakeholders in this.”
Frank Ward, owner of Ward’s Quality Transmission on South Main Street in Petal, said sometimes customers make it hard to abide by the ordinance when they essentially abandon their vehicles at his shop.
“You’ve got people that bring their cars with the intention of getting them fixed, per se,” he said. “But then they (leave them with) us, and then it’s up to us to process paperwork and find ways to dispose of these cars legally.
“That takes time as well – that takes up to 90 days just to process the paperwork to get rid of that car legally, where somebody has just come and left the car. In a lot of cases, they’ll just come and leave the car there when you’re not even open.”
Aldermen are expected to revisit the ordinance sometime in January.
“I think we treat it as a partnership, and go to the next phase of this,” Ducker said. “Hopefully (by then) we will have a rough draft of how we would like the ordinance to look – the changes, the tweaks we want to put on it, and then start getting with (the owners).
“Then sometime in the summer, we can start addressing any deficiencies.”
