Auto Shop Inspections Fuel Counterattack on City Zoning : Government: After trying to obey codes that regulate noise, fumes and debris, garage owners propose changing some of the outdated laws.
Gary Sornborger rarely gets home from work before 1 a.m. these days. He’s living on cash borrowed from relatives, and he says his marriage is “right on the edge.”
The owner of Gary’s Automotive in Northridge blames these myriad troubles on the zealotry of city building inspectors, whose recent offensive against unsightly auto shops has provoked an industry-led counterattack on city zoning codes.
The tiff heated up last summer when 16 building inspectors fanned out across L.A. to find out whether garages were obeying zoning laws--some dating to the 1940s and ‘50s--regulating noise, fumes and debris on their properties.
It turned out that more than half of the auto shops in the city--about 2,600 of 4,400 repair, body and tire shops--were operating in violation of the codes.
Although some of the thousands of zoning violations recorded were minor--leaving stacks of tires in view of the street for instance--many were blatant transgressions. For example, one-fourth of the businesses that were cited lacked permits to occupy the premises, said Phillip Kaainoa, assistant chief of the Bureau of Community Safety.
The sweep came about in part because of a new $300 city fee charged to auto shops this year to fund auto shop inspections and a citywide lull in construction that freed up inspectors to do the work, Kaainoa said.
Shop owners such as Sornborger have suddenly found themselves enmeshed in paperwork as they scurry to obey compliance orders, and file appeals and permit applications. Sornborger claims to have spent $60,000 and countless hours building a paint booth, ventilation system, handicapped parking slot and various other projects to bring his shop into compliance following the inspection of his shop last year.
In what he views as an especially perverse twist, he removed the iron security gates attached to the fence around his parking lot after one inspector told him they were illegally protruding into the lot. He rehung the gates so that they jutted several inches over the sidewalk outside the fence instead--and promptly got another citation for blocking the sidewalk.
“I’ve been going broke,” said the unrepentant Sornborger, who has written protest letters to everyone he can think of, including President Clinton. “It’s crazy, man. These people are out of control,” he said of the inspectors.
Now, leaders of the auto repair industry are striking back. With the support of City Councilman Hal Bernson, four organizations--the Southern California Service Station Assn., the California Tire Dealers and Retreaders Assn., the Automotive Service Councils of California, and the California Autobody Assn.--have spearheaded an effort to delete what they contend are trivial, out-of-date and contradictory land-use regulations.
The idea, said Lee Hintlian, deputy to Bernson, is not to give defiant shop owners a break; it’s to ease hardships for responsible owners while they comply with the law.
Auto industry officials say the crackdown threatened the very existence of many small shops that help make up the region’s multimillion-dollar auto service industry, which employs an estimated 125,000 people in Southern California and services roughly 5 million cars in the county.
“All we are trying to do really is make a living, which is hard enough to do in this day and age,” said Ed Cohn, executive director of the tire dealers group. “I’m not opposed to tire shops being good neighbors . . . but in these recessionary times, they ought to have a little sympathy.”
Cohn said his organization “put a lot of heat” on the Community Safety Bureau, showering the agency with complaints as citations piled up. In response, the bureau has put a temporary hold on enforcement of provisions in the codes that would change if Bernson’s ordinance passes.
Bernson’s proposal is “a compromise so business can get done what it needs to and the neighbors are happy,” said David Truslow, president of the greater Los Angeles chapter of the California Autobody Assn.
But the proposal, which is scheduled for a hearing before the Planning Commission on Thursday, has piqued those who view auto repair shops the way some view topless dance clubs--as neighborhood blights.
Northridge resident Jaryn Fagin, who lives three houses down from a tire shop, said she is often bothered by the sound of drills used to unscrew bolts in the parking lot in front of the garage. And across the street, Jeff and Heidi Levy blame the troubles they had trying to sell their house a few years ago on the ugliness of the shop.
“It’s been a real detriment to the neighborhood,” Heidi Levy said.
Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., a group opposed to auto shops in residential neighborhoods, doesn’t view the recent crackdown as nit-picking. Rather, he said, the laws aren’t being enforced enough.
“They are going in the wrong direction,” he said.
And in the highly competitive world of Los Angeles auto repair, the proposal is drawing mixed reviews: “I don’t have a problem with the law as it is,” said Sal Alaimo, owner of Sal’s Autobody in Northridge. Alaimo said he paid a substantial sum to ensure his business is in compliance with the existing code, and now fears a change in the law would allow competitors to offer lower prices.
But Jim Tidwell, owner of Casino Auto and Tire Center in Canoga Park, calls the existing zoning codes “silly laws anyway.” He recently got a citation ordering him to cease changing tires outside. Since a good part of his business is conducted outside in his parking lot, complying with the existing law “would put me out of business, it would kill me,” he said.
Proposals to Change Zoning Codes
Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson and four organizations representing the auto service industry hope to delete what they say are unnecessary regulations hindering the work of auto repair shops. Bernson has proposed the following changes to existing zoning codes:
* Allowing auto shops to do minor repairs, such as changing tires, directly in front of an auto bay; the code now requires all repairs to be done inside a bay.
* Allowing the use of portable hoists outside if the car is lifted no more than 12 inches off the ground; the code now bans the use of all hoists outside.
* Exempting installation of cellular phones, fax machines and computers in cars from zoning restrictions on auto repair services.
* Allowing auto body and fender work to be conducted in a garage with the doors open, unless the shop is within 150 feet of a residential zone; the code now requires all body work to be done within an enclosed building.
* Exempting existing businesses that don’t have occupancy permits from codes requiring them to get conditional-use permits. Conditional-use permits are now required to open new auto shops.
