Auto Shops Try to Hammer Out Noise

In an effort to save their businesses, auto shop owners have hammered out a proposal they say will help curb the noise of their trade. Neighbors fear the proposed changes to city law will only legalize the constant roar of power tools.

By Jorge Casuso

Wednesday, May 5 --BuzzzzzzzzzRRRRRoooooaaaaaarrrrrrrr Clank!Clank!ClanK!!!!

Those are the noises recorded by Kelly Olsen from inside his Mid City apartment. The sounds, which the former councilman has been capturing on audio and video tape since the late 1980s, emanate from the two car dealers and two auto repair shops near his home.

"You've got these engines revving all day," Olsen said. "These people have expanded. They want to use the alleys and the streets. Nobody wants to run these people out of business, but it's a quality of life issue."

For Chuck Perliter, whose family owned repair shop on Lincoln Blvd. has been around since 1923, keeping the neighbors' peace is a matter of survival. Perliter fears that if the city cracks down on "renegade" car shops, established businesses like his Santa Monica Radiator may be forced out of business.

"In the past year, there has been some outrageous conduct - people working late into the night, blocking streets, not being at all considerate to the neighbors," Perliter said. "You're dealing with a situation that's highly charged on both sides.

"We've tried to get the renegade shops to comply, but it's very difficult," said Perliter, who has forged an informal coalition of some three dozen repair shops. "It's really unfair to condemn a whole group. We're being held accountable for all these people's actions."

On Monday night, Perliter and more than fifty auto shop owners met with residents to hammer out differences and try to strike a balance that will keep them in a trade that has replaced the quiet turning of a wrench with the constant roar of power tools.

At the meeting, attended by more than 100 owners and neighbors, Perliter presented three amendments to an ordinance passed by the city council in 1988 but which has only been enforced during the past year. The proposed changes include:

· Scrapping a ban on outdoor repairs and setting hours when it can be performed. The proposed hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
· Reducing the landscaping required around at least 10 percent of the repair facility site not occupied by structures. Owners want to exclude landscaping - which must be at least two feet wide -- from existing building frontages that are adjacent to sidewalks.
· Allowing used or discarded automotive parts that are to be recycled to be stored outside in approved enclosed storage containers or bins.

On Tuesday, Perliter will present the proposed changes to the City Council, which unanimously agreed to give owners a three-month moratorium while they explore changes and drum up the support of neighbors.

But residents complained that Monday's meeting was more a rally for shop owners than an honest attempt to work out differences and let neighbors express their concerns about the proposals.

"The bulk of the meeting was car dealers standing up and talking about the law," Olsen said. "It was a venting session."

Councilman Michael Feinstein said the tenor of the meeting was understandable.

"This brought a lot of people together for the first time who had not had the opportunity to discuss this issue in a group setting of their peers, " said Feinstein, who attended the meeting along with Councilman Kevin McKeown. "It wasn't surprising to me that people got a lot of things off their chest and weren't as focused on the specifics of the proposal."

Perliter believes the owners' goals are the same as the neighbors' - to close the renegade shops down. But he fears that a blanket enforcement of the current law will shut down many businesses like his which don't disturb neighbors but which can't afford to comply with the letter of the law.

"We built this building and configured it so we could work outdoors," said Perliter, whose business moved to the current site in 1945. "To move indoors it would mean we would probably do 75 percent less cars."

Perliter says he can only add 25 percent more indoor space under zoning and building codes, which require set backs and additional parking.

"It's financially and physically impossible," he said. "For older businesses who were here prior to the law, it's a nightmare. We'd have to basically close our doors."

Perliter hopes the council will strike a balance between the competing interests. But the task will be difficult without the city opening itself up to charges of selective enforcement, Feinstein said.

"That's the Gordian knot," the councilman said. "We have to have a law that applies to everybody, not on a case by case basis. There's not a simple win-win solution here."