Fellow MV collectors:
We received a rather disturbing notice in the mail last week. The City has
cited us for "Operating a Junk Yard in a M1 Zone" The letter goes on to
define what the term "junk" means.
Which is
"Worn out, cast off, or discarded article or material which is ready for
destruction or has been stored for salvage or conversion to some use. Any
article or material which, unaltered or unchanged and without further
reconditioning, can be used for its original purpose as readily as when new,
shall not be considered junk."
This means the rear-ends, transmissions, engines, parts vehicles, etc. they
are junk and must be removed. The only thing that can remain iare items
that do not require further reconditioning. I called him and got no more
information from him on the phone that the letter stated. He just kept
reiterating the definition of junk. I asked him about putting slats on the
chain link fence. He said that it wouldn't make a difference. He said that
a vehicle that was on blocks was considered junk. I also explained to him
that we do not have a business and are not selling parts as the term
"Operating a Junk Yard" implied. He said, "If you have junk as defined in
the paragraph, you are operating a junk yard." I explained to him that the
historical military vehicles are to be restored and the parts in the yard
are for the vehicles. And it is our hobby, not a business. He just kept
reiterating the definition of junk and that it had to be removed.
My question is this: Has anyone ever encountered this situation? We are
not talking about one car on the street. Our vehicles and parts are all
fenced in. Our yard is one acre in size. The parts are on pallets so they
can be easily moved.
Any ides? I still have to look up the city ordinances that he cited and see
exactly what they say. It seems to me that I read somewhere a long time ago
that there were exceptions for old car and truck collectors.
He did say that he would be back after June 22nd, and check to see what
progress we have made. If he felt that no progress was made, he would issue
a citation and fine us $100. At that point we have the right to appeal it
to a judge and the judge could uphold or over rule the situation.
I have scanned and posted the notice to a webstie:
http://people.we.mediaone.net/jpsouza/violate.jpg
Your input is appreciatted,
John Souza
MVPA # 2697
"Collecting, restoring, and operating HMV's since 1978"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:42 PDT
