Lodi commission OKs new business plans, elects new chairman
The Lodi Planning Commission approved plans for several new business, and elected a new chair and vice chair during its meeting on Wednesday night.
Mitchell Slater was elected chair while Debbie Olsen was picked as vice chair. Dave Kirsten was reappointed to be the commission liaison for the Art in Public Places Committee and Slater was reappointed to be the commission liaison on the SPARC committee.
Also Wednesday night, the commission unanimously approved a use permit for Dynasty Performance and Dismantling at 720 E. Lodi Ave. According to Lodi City Planner Craig Hoffman, the location is a 3,500 square foot space with car storage in the back. The applicant Mohammad Tahir anticipates dismantling 15 cars at a time and plans to purchase cars, dismantle them and then sell the parts. The remaining parts will be taken to a junk yard for disposal. Storage of discarded parts will not be allowed on he premises, and the dismantling will take place inside of the building, Hoffman said. The business will be opened six days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. All car fluids will be recycled and disposed of in an approved manner by San Joaquin County Environmental Health.
Hoffman informed the commission that the AJ Lewis Corporation which owns the property immediately to the south of the dismantling shop had concerns about soil contamination. However there are conditions mapped out in the permit to limit that.
“We understand their concerns. The city and the county as well as the state would have the exact same concerns, and storage of a vehicle on open soil that doesn’t have some type of containment is not allowed,” Hoffman said.
Steve Hennecke question if large quantities of car fluids would be stored at the dismantling shop or if they were being removed on a regular basis so that there is no storage. Hoffman assured Hennecke that the fluids would be picked up regularly and that Tahir would have to secure an operations permit from the fire department as well as work with the county environmental health department to determine the amount of fluid that can be stored on site.
Olsen questioned how Tahir’s operation would work. His employee John Jennings explained that they get cars, disassemble them for the parts and the remaining parts that they can’t use are taken to Lodi Auto Wreckers who smashes them and gets rid of them. Customers shop online for the
parts they need and pick them up, Jennings said.
Slater had a noise concern and questioned if Tahir had thought of a way to mitigate the noise so that it wouldn’t disturb neighbors. Tahir reiterated that the dismantling would be done indoors and added that the process wouldn’t be that loud.
In other action Wednesday night, the commission also approved a tentative parcel map to merge and subdivide seven parcels in to three. The parcel map is to facilitate independent financing and sales of parcels to potential businesses. The main parcel created by this map will be for a Sprouts/PetSmart building, Hoffman said.
“Sprouts has been working on the site for about two years so we’re excited to see them coming forward and tonight what you’re seeing is a parcel map to create the parcel so it can go there,” Hoffman said to the commission. “Typically you wouldn’t see something exactly like this. We’re able to complete the parcel merges with a lot line adjustment, but again, because you’re seeing so many lots switching and so many boundary lines the only way to do that is to do a parcel map.”