The Pasco County Commission has directed its staff to proceed with work to pursue a pause on allowing additional used car lots in the county.
County staff have been investigating potential code violations at existing used car lots.
Commission Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey asked for a staff update of that work during the county board’s Jan. 11 meeting
Sally Sherman, assistant county administrator for development services, told Starkey: “We will be sharing a report that’s being prepared right now that shows the activity for 67 car lots that have been visited, reviewed — as far as what has transpired on the lot. Some that have complied. Some that are grandfathered in. And we have them all categorized,” Sherman said.
“We do have a very comprehensive report that is being prepared on each one of those lots. That report is going to be finalized and I can share it with each one of you next week,” she told the county board.
“They all differ to a certain degree, chair, because some of them — if they’re grandfathered, there’s nothing that limits them. They just have to keep driveways and access available for emergency,” Sherman said.
Starkey responded: “Even if they’re grandfathered on our new used car overlay ordinance, they still had to have some kind of approval that allowed a certain kind of parking spaces, right, on-site. I think that’s our tool to clean up some of these.”
Sherman told Starkey that some lots will close and then they’ll open up somewhere else.
Sherman added: “So, we’re chasing, continuously, those properties.”
Starkey wants the county to take action now.
“While we’re still cleaning up the mess — and so that it doesn’t proliferate — I think we should do a moratorium on used car lots,” Starkey said. “I think we have so much work to do on the ones that we have, and I’m telling you that they’re popping up all over.
“I think we’ve got to put a stop to it, until we have under control,” Starkey said.
Commissioner Mike Moore chimed in: “I’ll support you.”
Starkey asked: “Would you make a motion?”
Moore continued: “They’re on (U.S.) 41 and (State Road) 52 and obviously, we know (U.S.) 19. You see a couple on your side of (State Road) 54, closer to (U.S.) 19, as well.”
Commissioner Ron Oakley said: “I don’t see it (in his East Pasco district), like you see it on the west side.”
County Attorney Jeffrey Steinsnyder told board members that they would have to adopt the moratorium through an ordinance, that there would need to be a plan for fixing the problem and that it would need be to no longer than a year, to be sustainable.
“The last time we did one (apartment moratorium) it was six months, with the ability to extend it for six months,” Steinsnyder said.
Starkey responded: “I would recommend that.”
Steinsnyder added: “It has to be advertised and it’s going to come back to you as a public hearing item. But my concern is that the planning department has to have the resources to actually develop standards for a fix.”
Starkey responded: “I bet they’re out there,” adding, “I think we can come up with some good ideas.”
With that, the county board unanimously approved Moore’s motion to pursue a temporary moratorium on establishing new “used car” lots.
Published January 19, 2022
