Council receives community input on junk vehicles

    The Washington City Council has debated a junk vehicle ordinance for three months but is not yet ready to sign the ordinance into law. The council heard what was to be the final reading of the ordinance at its meeting Wednesday night, but voted to table the ordinance after listening to a resident voice his concerns.

    Ron Greiner, who runs Greiner Auto Body-Towing, addressed the council about a loophole he believes is in the ordinance. The ordinance states that an inoperable vehicle may not be parked outside in a residential area for more than seven days. However, the ordinance exempts salvage yards and towing and repair businesses, provided they are in a commercial or industrial zoned area.

    Greiner argued that George Moore, who owns Moore?s BP Amoco, should be subject to the ordinance because Moore places junk vehicles outside his home on East Seventh Street, which Greiner believed was zoned as residential.

    ?He should have to have a commercial lot or get it re-zoned,? said Greiner.

    City Building Inspector Jason Geyer said in an interview Thursday that George Moore?s personal property on East Seventh Street is zoned as ?General Industrial,? which allows him to use it as an auto salvage yard. Moore does have a house on the property, which does not conform to the current zoning laws but was grandfathered in because it was built before the city enacted zoning in the 1970s.

For more, see our April 8 print edition.