New Rock Hill car lot rules on hold

New rules for the city’s used car lots are on hold after the Planning Commission made changes to the proposal.

Because of those changes, City Council has delayed a vote on new rules it initially approved in October.

The city’s planning staff must come up with a “formula” for the number and size of parking spaces required on a sales lot. Rules targeting existing car lots for improvements were amended by the Planning Commission in a way that may be unenforceable.

City planners had hoped to require car lots to meet landscaping and minimum lot size standards, reducing the number of dealerships planners called “substandard,” because of haphazard parking and unpaved lots.

“Some are so tight together they look like a junkyard,” senior planner Leah Youngblood told the Dec. 1 meeting of the Planning Commission.

Commissioners responded to lot owners’ arguments against a proposed 9-foot minimum width for parking spaces, saying a tighter space not only allows them to display more cars, but also limits foot traffic around the cars. Rocky Barrett with Barrett Motor Co. said in tighter spaces, customers won’t swing the doors open and dent neighboring cars.

Many owners also have security concerns on their mostly open lots. Kris Griffin with Urban Auto Sales said, “you can hide behind a bush and boost a tire” in speaking against landscape requirements.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to replace a uniform space requirement with a formula to determine how many spaces a dealer can use to display cars for sale.

Commissioners also voted against a proposal that would limit where lots can locate in the future.

City planners hoped to limit new lots to “community commercial” zoning – a classification that currently only covers an area along Dave Lyle Boulevard near Interstate 77 – while restricting future lots in the general commercial area that covers Anderson and Cherry roads where many lots currently cluster. Youngblood said many of those areas abut neighborhoods, causing concern from residents.

Commission chairman Tom Roper said he didn’t like the idea “to only allow it in one particular place.”

Planning Director Bill Meyer said many general commercial properties are eligible to be rezoned community commercial at the owners’ request.

The commission voted to allow lots to open in both zoning classifications, as well as apply for a “special exception” to open in other commercial areas.

The commission also approved new rules for existing car lots, but removed one key means of enforcing them.

Car dealers had complained that existing rules for their businesses were tough enough, and owners packed a public meeting on the proposed new rules in November.

As of July 1, existing lots will have to comply with rules regarding landscaping, signage and whatever parking rules are ultimately set. Stricter requirements would only kick in if the existing business is sold a requirement that doesn’t apply to other businesses.

Planners have said they can only bring “grandfathered” businesses up to code when some significant change is made to the property – and those changes are never made to dealerships that only operate as a display parking lot.

Youngblood said half of the city’s used car lots have opened since 2006, and only two of them are on sites that conform to the city’s standards.

“In some cases, it’s gone on for years, Youngblood said.

The planning commission was not inclined to apply a stricter standard to one business over another. They voted to require the changes only when a property reached the same “trigger” as any other business. Commissioner Justin Smith said the new requirement was essentially the same as voting down the staff’s recommendation.

The Rock Hill City Council did not take action on the commission’s recommendations at its December meeting. Once a new parking formula is devised the council could hold a vote on the issue in January.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 8:17 PM with the headline "New Rock Hill car lot rules on hold."