Business avoids fines, given six months to combine lots
Members of the Onaway City Commission approved a motion Monday to allow an Onaway business six months to fix a zoning violation.
Northern Great Lakes, a used car dealership near the curve that connects Washington Avenue and State Street, needs to acquire an adjacent piece of property or face fines of a $1,000 a day.
The city commission is willing to give owners Mike and Lloyd James six months to rectify the situation.
The piece of property now owned by Joe Hoerner was rezoned several years ago from general commercial to highway commercial to let Mitch James, then the owner, to operate a car dealership there.
The property was sold to Joe, but the Jameses continued to rent out space to sell cars. City manager Joe Hefele said, because the Jameses were renting this space, he didn’t cite them with a violation, even though their office was on a different piece of property.
THE JAMESES are no longer renting Joe’s lot, and now have their dealership on the piece of property next door, which is zoned general commercial, which does not allow for car lots.
General commercial lots can be smaller and often have residences directly behind them, Hefele stated in his report to the commission.
Highway commercial lots must be larger – 12,000 square feet is the minimum. This piece of property is only 7,788 square feet, well under the 12,000-square-foot, highway commercial minimum lot size.
In addition, the lot only has 59 feet along Washington Avenue, which is short of the 99-foot minimum lot width requirement.
Hefele is also concerned about there being enough space for car sales.
Attending the meeting was Mike James who said he would purchase the house behind Northern Great Lakes with cash and level the building.
Hefele said he would consider a proposal that includes James legally combining the lots. A rezoning and variance request would still need to be requested.
“If you did all this, his primary lot would be not on the highway, but on residential Elsden Street,” Hefele told the commission. “It’s about as far as you can possibly stretch a zoning ordinance.”
Commissioner Mel Perkins wanted to consider a shorter period of time. James responded by asking, “would it kill you to wait six months?”
With the decision of the commission, Hefele will hold off writing citations.
o An undeveloped alley extending from Summit to Forest, between South Lynn and College, will be closed.
Pat Kondratko and Cheryl Blockno had asked the commission to abandon the 651.75-foot long, 20-foot wide alley. Instead, the couple has agreed to install a fence. If the city needs to remove the fence, it would have to be replaced at the couple’s expense.
o Ray LaFave had a request approved to abandon the 319.4-foot long, 20-foot wide undeveloped alley extending from Fairview to Summit, between Oak and Euclid. Hefele said there was little chance the alley would ever be developed.
Another request by LaFave to abandon the 324.2-foot long, 66-foot wide section of undeveloped Summit Street was tabled so city officials can talk to an affected neighbor.