A.G. Gancarski
Outdoor storage of tires for sale may eventually be a thing of the past in the city of Jacksonville, if an ordinance filed last month becomes law.
Ordinance 2017-231 would require storage of tires for sale to be not visible from the street or adjacent properties within 5 years of the effective date of the ordinance.
This would remedy the so-called visual blight of the tires, while eliminating the chance that Zika-bearing mosquitoes could breed in tires holding standing water.
If passed, the ordinance goes into effect July 1, necessitating compliance by current tire shops by July 2022. The five-year lead time is intended to lessen the possibility of an impacted business suing and recouping damages, and give businesses time to comply.
New tire shops are expected to comply immediately after July 1.
On Thursday, Jacksonville City Council members discussed the bill, introduced by Council VP John Crescimbeni.
Crescimbeni noted that a “number of tire dealers” were invited to the meeting, but representation was not sent.
The legislation was formulated after discussion of “commercial corridors” that had devolved into strings of car repair shops and the like, which arguably contribute to neighborhood blight in older neighborhoods, like Arlington.
Zoning issues also affect the eventual shape of this bill: one of the two commercial zoning districts (CCG-2) allows shipping containers to be used to store tires.
Crescimbeni balked at tarps and shipping containers as being outside storage conveyances, saying a big motivator of the bill was aesthetics.
Councilman Scott Wilson, whose district contains a lot of tire shops, noted the outside storage “looks terrible.”
Some used tire shops, meanwhile, lack storage facilities, said one city employee. Currently tiremongers are permitted storage of 1,500 tires outside.
The used tire dealers generate the bulk of the blight.
Crescimbeni contended that inside storage would be the best way to go. To that end, inside storage in a permitted, enclosed building emerged as the consensus, after robust semantic discussion.
Also discussed: rolling fines, imposed daily. And the possibility of cutting off utilities from wayward tire shops for non-compliance.
