[RP TownTalk] Jeys Auto 5731 Baltimore Avenue

[Jonathan W. Ebbeler]

Hopefully Jey will survive as what?

 

Some questions I am actually quite curious about is why did the land owner
walk away years ago?  Why did they let their Use and Occupancy to expire?
Why was the property left in such egregious disrepair and constant code
violation for years?  As a small business owner myself, it puzzles me why
they allowed any of the events to transpire - it makes absolutely no sense
to me.

 

The landowner would not have any of their current zoning issues if they had
remained continually in business.  When the owner let their Use and
Occupancy expire, they made a strategic decision that they no longer valued
grandfathering into a non-conforming building with a non-conforming use.
The town also made a strategic decision a decade ago to take the 1994 Master
Plan recommendation to create a Mixed-Use Town Center zone, a process that
Bruce and others helped drive by being on the Riverdale Park Town Center
Committee.  Regardless of that decision, the property was zoned C-S-C prior
to that.  Both C-S-C and M-U-TC zoning require a Special Exception to the
zoning for any of the contemplated uses that have been presented over the
last 5 years.  The town did not create the hurdles, they are applied
County-wide to any development within either of those zones.  

 

Dunkin Donuts and other fast food establishments all require the 10+ month
Special Exception processing with the Planning Board, Zoning Hearing
Examiner, and District Council.  It is not up to the town to make zoning
variance decisions.  The town is however, completely open to any and all
proposals but we are not going to constantly have the same circular
discussion year after year.     

 

To Melissa's point about Beale Circle that is precisely the point of my
proposed legislation that is hopefully being voted on toinght for the Public
Arts Initiative.  Beale Circle will be the first, of what I hope will be
many, pad sites around Riverdale Park that will have sculptures or other art
forms to activate our underutilized spaces.

 

 

Jonathan W. Ebbeler

Councilman, Ward 1

Chair, Economic Development Committee

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