RESIDENTS URGE NEW ADVANCE AUTO PARTS TO RESTRICT ON-SITE REPAIRS

We’ve reported on Advance Auto Parts coming into town to take the space vacated by the recent shutdown of World Tire on Springfield Avenue.

But the new tenant, which will provide auto parts and some limited service, has some in the nearby College Hill neighborhood concerned.

Advance is gaining a lot of new business nationwide as it caters to a growing number of self-repair customers, those who want to save money by doing the repairs on their own. Advance’s website offers videos and other tips aimed at showing vehicle owners how to change oil and make other repairs on their own.

But a check of other Advance sites in New Jersey by some residents finds a proliferation of what is known as “hoods up” service, where customers do much of the repair work on the Advance Auto Parts premises, and even utilize day laborers and workers who often congregate at such locations to do the work for a fee.

During the Planning Board meeting on Sept. 4 when the approvals were granted for Advance Auto Parts to change some signage and other elements of the World Tire location for its new venue, the board included a provision requiring Advance Auto to disallow repairs on the site and post a sign to that effect.

“It was made as one of the conditions of approval and also they have to post a sign inside alerting their clients that they cannot repair,” De Luca, who also serves on the Planning Board, said during a discussion of the issue at the Sept. 16 Township Committee meeting. “A sign that says no repairs in the parking lot.”

De Luca also noted that if repairs are allowed or done, Advance would be in violation of its zoning approval and be subject to a ticket and fine. 
De Luca and Township Committee Member Jerry Ryan, who also serves on the Planning Board, told residents they would fashion a related ordinance to ban repairs on public streets and right-of-ways.

“We discussed a draft (ordinance) at the last meeting and will introduce it in October,” Ryan told Maplewoodian via email. “It seems a good noncontroversial idea.”

The Township Committee at the Sept. 16 meeting, discussed the proposed ordinance. Township Attorney Roger Desiderio said placing an ordiance restriction on private lots such as Advance Auto Parts would be difficult to enforce because it is private property. He stressed that the zoning approval restriction for Advance Auto would ensure that repairs are not done on its property for this location. But he said any other such locations in the future would require a specific provision as well.

“It’s very difficult to try to do that on private property,” Desiderio told the TC at the meeting. “But the discussion was that that (restriction) would be part of the approvals for the facility specifically on Springfield Avenue. The approvals were contingent on not allowing any repairs on the facility.”

College Hill Neighborhood Association Leader Erin Scherzer is one of several neighbors of the site who offered concerns and said they would seek to make sure the restriction is enforced.

“I’m concerned about being able to effectively enforce this and make sure the business understands that we are trying to re-image Springfield Avenue to bring in more family friendly businesses,” she told us. “And we make sure that ‘hoods-up’ is not the direction we are going and also that people who live in the surrounding communities shouldn’t be negatively impacted with hoods up on their street.”