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LIBERTY -- Liberty's zoning commission is making headway with changes to its code, and entrepreneurs or residents looking to establish a convenience store or gas station in the community will be able to do so again.
Trustees at this week's meeting approved a resolution making gas stations and convenience stores a conditional use in the township's zoning code, as part of its commercial zoning section, and set the criteria for their specific uses.
The criteria states the business must have frontage on an arterial street or collector street and the minimum lot size must be 1.5 acres, with a minimum convenience store building size of 5,000-square-feet.
The criteria state no vehicle repairs will be allowed to be performed, and the only vehicle services to be provided are vehicle charging and the dispensing of vehicle fluids, such as oil, air or antifreeze. In addition, all streetscape improvements, including sidewalks and a minimum 10 feet of grass, must be maintained.
The criteria bans outside loudspeakers broadcasting sound exceeding 60 decibels at the lot line of any neighboring residentially zoned properties.
The criteria will require a circulation route for gasoline tanker trucks and other delivery vehicles on the site, and the route must demonstrate that fuel tankers and other delivery vehicles can enter, service and exit without backing onto a public street.
The change also edits Section 4.6: Neighborhood Business to delete "Motor Vehicle Service Station" from a subsection's language.
A second resolution extends a moratorium approved May 11 on the township's zoning inspector, board of zoning appeals or any other township body or official from accepting, processing or approving an application that would authorize the establishment, expansion or construction of used motor sales, vehicle storage lots, repair or service facilities, and salvage, scrap or junk yards, as well as tire storage or disposal, until May 11, 2027.
The moratorium has been lifted on gas station and convenience store use, the resolution states.
Trustees had a hearing to discuss the amendment's adoption ahead of the meeting, and there was no public testimony or disagreement.
During the discussion portion, however, Trustee Arnie Clebone suggested adding language that would require property owners who cease selling gas to remove gas station infrastructure, such as pumps and tanks, if converting the property to a different use.
"If it does look like blight, I don't want to see, suddenly you're going to just operate the convenience store, but they're going to leave the gas station stuff up there when there's no gas to be delivered," Clebone said.
Clebone said leaving the infrastructure behind would make it look blighted, but trustee Greg Cizmar noted a scenario where a buyer might purchase it and want to clean it up.
"The guy that owns it, it's his problem," Cizmar said.
Clebone said he wasn't trying to prevent anything from being developed, noting that having it cleaned up would make it more attractive for development.
Trustee Devon Stanley said he wouldn't care if such a requirement was implemented, but added that he didn't think it was enforceable.
Stanley suggested the possibility of a buyer, years down the road, seeing the cost of removing the old infrastructure and leaving it as it is.