Auto body shop plans move ahead after review
POTTSTOWN >> A 14,000-squarefoot auto body shop is being proposed for the northwest corner of Glasgow and West High streets.
Monday night, borough council unanimously approved the conditional use application that will move the proposal to the planning commission for further consideration.
As proposed, Caliber Collision would comprise nine bays, 50 parking places — including for cars being worked on — and could ultimately provide up to 30 jobs.
David Bailey, who works for the Nashville-based firm that created Pottstown High Street LLC to make the proposal, said the business is part of a national chain that focuses almost exclusively on auto body work for insurance companies.
The site is currently two parcels, both of which are empty lots. The building would be airconditioned, to allow for the company to attract the most qualified technicians and to keep the doors closed, said Bailey.
As a result, any noise from the shop “would be no louder than the train across the street.”
He also said filters would be in place so there would be no smell of paint outside the facility. “The air coming out of there is cleaner than the exhaust coming out of your car,” he said.
Bailey also said engine, transmission and other work would
“I feel this is being shoved down our throat, under cloak of darkness in the middle of summer when half the people are away on vacation.” — Robert Biggins, Stowe neighbor
“The air coming out of there is cleaner than the exhaust coming out of your car.” — David Bailey, developer
be “out-sourced” to other locations.
Chris Mercer, owner of Mercer’s TruCraft Collision at 401 W. High St., found that claim unlikely.
He said if the workers being hired are as skilled as Bailey claimed they would be, “they’re not going to send a car out on a flat-bed to replace a radiator or other fluid work.”
Mercer spoke at the hour-long conditional use hearing held Wednesday, Aug. 7, prior to the regularly scheduled Borough Council work session.
The borough’s zoning officer has ruled that the business is allowed in the Gateway West zoning district by conditional use, which requires a hearing before borough council only on allowing the use.
At the planning commission, if a formal application is made, engineering particulars will be worked out, and then the project would still require final site plan approval from council.
Mercer was not the only speaker at the hearing Wednesday.
Robert G. Biggins, who lives in Vine Street in West Pottsgrove adjacent to the parcel, objected to the proposal on a number of grounds.
Biggins, who clashed repeatedly with Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. about appropriate lines of questioning during a conditional use hearing, called the plan “a cancercausing, environment-destroying filthy use.”
He insisted neighbors in West Pottsgrove were not properly notified of the hearing,
“I feel this is being shoved down our throat, under cloak of darkness in the middle of summer when half the people are away on vacation,” said Biggins. “I also call for zoning officer to resign.”
“So noted, “Borough Council President Dan Weand replied dryly.
In addition to concerns about the impact the project could have on a stream that runs through the property, Biggins also said the site “is surrounded by residential properties and out of scale with existing development.”
At Monday night’s council meeting, he spoke again and asked council to delay making a decision, arguing the zoning officer had erred.
Stowe neighbor Don Roussey warned Wednesday the location is in the stream’s flood plain and said “I already get water in my basement when it rains.”
Councilman Joe Kirkland also expressed concern about stormwater, but was told the project’s engineer, Carl Lightner, that when completed, the development would send no more stormwater off-site than currently.
He also said during the site planning process which follows if council grants conditional use, that an underground storage facility for stormwater might be necessary.