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Trustees move new and used auto dealerships to special-use category in Swansea
Summary
After discussion about density, aesthetics and grandfathering, the board approved recategorizing new and used auto dealers as a special use in highway and planned-business districts to allow additional review and controls.
The Swansea Board of Trustees voted July 14 to recategorize automobile dealerships — both new and used — as a special-use activity in the highway business and planned business zoning districts, giving trustees and staff additional oversight over lot appearance, vehicle density and design standards.
Zoning Administrator (Speaker 5) said the proposed change responds to recurring issues with certain used-car operations, such as overcrowded lots and signage. “We’re strengthening the rules against the type of used auto dealers that provide a buy-here, pay-here type of style of sale,” he said, pointing to concerns about vehicles crammed on lots and property maintenance.
Several trustees expressed reservations about whether the definition could unintentionally target small operators and suggested alternative regulatory approaches — landscaping, building or property-maintenance standards, and density limits — that could address the problems without singling out business models. “I think we’re walking to the discriminatory thing,” one trustee said, urging caution in how the term is defined.
The presenter said the village can use the secretary of state’s dealer oversight as a backstop and that the local special-use process would provide an additional review step rather than an outright ban. He also clarified that existing, occupied dealerships that meet permit and safety requirements would remain legal (grandfathered), but a vacant lot would be subject to the new special-use requirements when a new occupant seeks to establish dealership operations.
Trustees ultimately amended the language to make “auto dealers” (new and used) a single special-use category and instructed staff and the village attorney to refine definitions and any necessary rewording. The motion to make new and used auto dealers special use was made, seconded and approved; the chair declared the motion carried.
The ordinance will be updated to include definition changes and the village attorney and planning staff will determine whether the revised language must return to the board of trustees for formal adoption or can be implemented administratively.
