Salvage yard clash restarts
Neighbors urge board to monitor Milton junkyard
Neighbors surrounding Planit Waste Recycling and Salvage were back in front of the Town Board Wednesday, urging officials again to do something about the company’s house-shaking pounding and crashing, as well as the unsightly piles of crushed metal that border their backyards.
It’s been a request that has been ongoing for two years and on Wednesday night, a handful of neighbors angrily argued that Planit’s owner Tony Dawson in not running an expansion of what was there before — Ed Loya’s Used Auto Parts — but a large metal recycling operation.
“Dawson claims exemption from zoning and licensing laws because he’s grandfathered in from the previous business,” said Michael Landis, who lives on Meadowlark Drive. “This is false. Dawson is operating an entirely different business. Thus there needs to be a public hearing and a new assessment of his activities.”
Planit took over Loya’s car and truck junkyard in 2015. At the time, Dawson himself described the business in a trade newsletter as “dormant.” Since then, Dawson has insisted that his 22-acre lot on Greenfield Avenue that borders dozens of houses on three sides is compliant with local laws. He also blames his neighbors for not doing “their due diligence” when they purchased their homes and moved to the neighborhood.
Michael Kaine, who has lived on Meadowlark for 17 years, takes offense to that.
“We did our due diligence,” Kaine said.
“My wife and I spent time walking the neighborhood. We talked to neighbors about living here and asked about the Loya salvage yard and was informed they never had an issue. We personally had no issue the first 12 years we lived here.”
But now Kaine said he is embarrassed by his home.
“I worked my whole life, retired and am now ashamed to have people come to our house,” Kaine told the board. “We did not choose to have our quality of diminished by a business that should never have been allowed in a residential area.”
On Thursday, Supervisor Benny Zlotnick agreed that Planit is a different use than Loya’s. But he said, if Planit is in compliance with the regulations as they are written by the town law then the town “doesn’t have the right to deny them.”
He has assigned Councilman Ryan Isachsen to look into what can be done at Planit. On Thursday, Isachsen said he’s reviewing all the materials in regards to Planit, including a listing of legal concerns as compiled by attorney Stephanie Ferradino, who has worked for the neighbors since November 2018. In addition to noise, inadequate fencing and excessive vibration emanating from Planit, she said there appears to be no state environmental quality review (SEQRA) of Planit, as is required by state and town law.
Isachsen said he has tried to set up a site visit of the salvage yard, but it was delayed because Dawson had stipulations including providing in advance a list of attendees and questions that would be asked. Isachsen said he wants to just stop in with Councilwoman Barbara Kerr, who is working with him on the review, when they both have time to do so. But he said now there is a challenge of snow and ice, that he said might not give him a view of the entire perimeter. Still, he said he and Kerr will get there and that they are looking at options, such as berms, fencing and reduced hours, to make life more bearable for the neighbors.
“My understanding is if we put any stipulations in place for one business, we may have to implement them for all businesses of the same type or category,” Isachsen said. “The goal is to reduce the frustration and impact on the residents without going so far as to financially harm
businesses. With businesses, there are employees. We don’t want to impact employees either.”
But after two years of pleading, the neighbors feel that the town board still isn’t listening. Kim
White, who lives on Citation Way and has spoken out about this issue since the start, said she is disappointed.
“Do we just have to suck it up and watch our property values go
down?,” White asked the board on Wednesday night. “This is a problem, a very big problem. …. it is tortuous. We pay our mortgages, we pay our taxes and we can’t enjoy our homes.”