Car storage planned in West Rome

City commissioners will decide Oct. 23 on a rezoning on Rogers Drive sought by Rome Automotive and Towing.

Plans for an automotive storage yard off Rogers Drive netted unanimous backing Thursday from the Rome-Floyd Planning Commission following an extended review.

Roy Pitts Jr., owner of Rome Automotive and Towing, said he wants to store damaged and confiscated vehicles on just under an acre of the wooded tract across from Safe Storage near Redmond Circle.

“I don’t think this would take away from anything that is there,” Planning Director Artagus Newell said when members of the citizen board pressed him for a recommendation.

The property is currently zoned for commercial use and Pitts needs light industrial zoning with a special-use permit for the operation. He’s also seeking several buffer variances because the tract abuts land zoned for multi-family housing.

Newell said the city ordinance requires fencing that is opaque enough to screen the yard, and the cars must be arranged in neat rows. Pitts said the tract would likely hold about 100 vehicles.

“Whatever they tell us we’ve got to do, that’s what we’re going to do,” he told the planning commission.

Access to the property is on Bankston Road — “a paper street that is not open or constructed,” Newell said. Pitts said they’d be using the graveled pathway and also plan to lay gravel on the tract where they will park the cars.

None of the adjacent property owners registered opposition to the application Wednesday. The land is owned by Jeff Bohannon and Pitts said he would be leasing it for his storage yard.

The Rome City Commission is slated to rule on the rezoning request following a public hearing at its Oct. 23 meeting. Pitts is due before the Board of Adjustments Oct. 19 to ask for the variances.