Attorney Thomas Kiloran represented Brian Medeiros (Troy City Towing) at a hearing on April 17 seeking a variance and special permit to allow the stowing of towed vehicles at 35 Oak Grove Avenue. The lot currently contains an auto service station, car wash and non-operational fuel pumps; the petitioner wants to move towing operations from Flint Street to Oak Grove and store vehicles on the Oak Grove parcel.

Kiloran and Medeiros described the intended operations: towing for the city's police rotation (accident and removal calls), vehicle servicing and a car wash. Medeiros said that when he tows vehicles outside business hours he sometimes leaves them on the truck until morning, and he sought permission to park/stow vehicles at his Oak Grove facility at any hour when necessary. He emphasized that his existing Flint Street operation had operated without neighbor complaints and that the Oak Grove site is a secured, fenced area.

Abutters and residents raised concerns about proximity to houses behind the site, the potential for long-term derelict vehicles, screening and visibility for traffic at the Oak Grove/Beatty intersection. A neighbor (Doris Chico) urged the board not to allow stowed vehicles to be located less than the zoning setback from the street, arguing the surrounding area is residential and that the use should be located elsewhere. Attorney David Assad, representing an adjacent property owner, requested a vinyl fence between the two properties.

Planning staff and the applicant worked through layout options during the hearing. The petitioner agreed to reduce the number of stow spaces and to relocate spaces so that the existing vegetative buffer along Beatty Street could be preserved. The applicant also agreed to install screening and a secured chain-link roll-up gate for the stow area, to plant additional evergreen screening (Arborvitae) along the rear where requested by neighbors, and to install a six-foot vinyl fence along the southern property line abutting Broadway Properties (with the fence not extending closer than 10 feet to Oak Grove Ave so vehicle sightlines are preserved at the car-wash exit).

The board voted to grant the variance to permit stowage at the site and separately granted the special permit to allow parked/stowed vehicles within the requested setback so long as conditions were met. The board explicitly capped the number of stowed-vehicle spaces at 22, required the vegetative buffer and specified the fence/screening and that there be no access from Beatty Street. The board also required the applicant to proceed through site-plan review to memorialize the approved layout and conditions. The motions passed unanimously.

The petitioner indicated he would discontinue the Flint Street stow operation once Oak Grove is fully permitted and operational, and the board recorded that enforcement would be handled through building inspection and site-plan review if long-term derelict vehicles or other compliance issues arose.