Mulch Lot, Wrecking Co. Get (Brief) Reprieves

Two industrial companies that got rapped on the knuckles for operating in violation of city zoning and general ordinances are getting a little more time to show the city that they have plans for becoming compliant.

Just a couple of weeks after City Building Official Jim Turcio issued cease and desist orders to Elm City Properties Inc./Elm City Auto Wrecking and Paradise Landscaping and Tree Removal/Fasano Properties LLC (pictured) giving both companies 10 days to file paperwork to comply with city regulations or else, the two businesses are still operating as usual without having submitted permit applications.

But that’s only because the owners for each of the companies have agreed to come to City Hall to meet with officials to devise a plan to bring their businesses into compliance. The auto-wreckers are expected to come in for a meeting Thursday, and the mulchers are scheduled for next Wednesday.

Elm City Auto Wrecking at Middletown Avenue and Fawn Street had obtained a special permit from the city in 2007 to operate a junkyard in return for making promised environmental improvements. It violated that agreement by creating an illegal junkyard right on Fawn Street, according to Turcio. The business passed a surprise inspection on July 8 of its own premises, but its special permit expired in 2012, as reported in this article. Turcio had initially given the business a week to file an application for a new permit. Meanwhile, the business began cleaning up Fawn Street itself

A similar inspection of Paradise Landscaping and Tree Removal at 86 Fitch St. turned up unregistered vehicles and construction equipment being stored on the property; and a mulch business partially operating in a residential zone, within the 100 and 500-year floodplain, and the Coastal Area Management District because it abuts the West River.