At the November 16 Town Planning Board meeting, neighbors on Simmons Drive in Saugerties described Rust Free Motors as a junkyard. Steve Michael King, one of the owners, said his business is repairing and restoring classic and antique cars, as well as less expensive used cars. None of the cars on his lot go to junkyards or are dismantled for parts sales.
One neighbor said that after 30 years of looking at a wooded area, I was shell shocked when I first came to look at it. It’s beautiful cars to you, but it’s not to us.” He suggested that the partners consider an entry directly from Route 9W, rather than the existing plan, which places the entry on Simmons Drive, on the opposite side of the property. While acknowledging this could be difficult, the neighbor said, “this is what you have to do; you gotta jump through all the hoops.”
King agreed that this is a possibility, though the partners were initially told no. “Maybe there is another process we can go through,” he said.
Sue Rinaldi of Simmons Drive, an immediate neighbor of Rust Free Motors, said she had been led to believe that fencing on the property would go all the way across Simmons Drive, “but what you’re doing will do nothing for us. You haven’t blocked the car view and we still see the cars as well.”
King responded that the partners had moved the more unsightly cars to a screened lot and kept the more attractive cars, for instance a late-model Tesla, in the more open area.
The lot is still a work in progress “and once you see it, with the screening in place, it will look a lot better,” King said.
Citing the state’s definition of a junkyard, Rinaldi asserted that more than two inoperable cars on a property made it a junkyard. King responded that the cars on his lot are there to be repaired and sold, not broken up for parts, as would happen if it were a junkyard.
The back and forth went on for some time. For much of the time, a loud mechanical noise could be heard in the background.
“If you were a homeowner, would you want to buy a house that sits next to that?” Rinaldi asked. Noting that two nearby houses had sold, King said some people are looking for vintage cars,” and that he had an opportunity to buy four vintage Buicks. He promised to move them to a location on the property that was out of sight. “Once you see it with the cars moved and the screening in place, I think you’ll find it more attractive,” he said.
Another possibility, an entrance off Route 9W, can’t happen until approval from the Department of Transportation comes through, King said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to make it pretty for this picture window.”
Lou Olson asked about the fencing on the property, which King said is three-feet-high redwood. “Three-feet high? What’s that supposed to do? What you have created there is not an attraction.”
“The paddock fence is there so you can’t drive into the parking lot, King said. “Some people like looking at vintage cars.”
“I’ve been driving past that site — I’ve been here for about 18 years now – and when I saw that the building was going to be occupied, I saw what looked to me like a junkyard,” Erin Davis said. “When I say that, I echo what Ms. Rinaldi said, and that’s what it looks like to me, a junkyard.” The property should be completely screened to protect the appearance of the area as a residential neighborhood,” she said. Davis also said she is concerned about the number of children in the area, for whom the car lot would be an attractive nuisance, and the danger to children from large trucks hauling cars into the lot. She believes the entrance to the property should be on the Route 9W side, not a residential street.
Another neighbor commented that in the past, water was absorbed or ran off the property, while now it ponds, and “I saw cars skidding in the lot.” She also questioned the safety of fluids from the cars leaking into the groundwater that supplies the neighborhood wells.
“We looked at an area of the ground to put a catch basin for the water to flow,” King said. “That’s something we need to work on with an excavator. We have an area where all the water goes.”
Rinaldi wanted to know how this business could be allowed to operate when it does not yet have a permit. “I thought you had to have a plan in place before [opening],” Rinaldi said, questioning why the business was in operation while the permit application was still in front of the board.
Planning Board chairman Howard Post agreed that this is the usual process, but the owners did not know that they needed a new permit, so they were allowed to operate while the application for a new permit was pending. “The applicants were unaware of the need,” he said.
Following the public hearing, the board will consider all the comments and consult with its professional planning consultant Adriana Beltrani, Post said. The Ulster County Planning Board will go over the plan and possibly suggest changes, Beltrani said. Conditions, such as hours of operation or visual screening could be written into the permit. “These would be conditions of the approval itself,” she said. Beltrani also explained that the public hearing would be kept open for further comment at the next meeting, and possibly longer, “until all the questions have been addressed.”
The permit will specify how the business may operate, including hours, screening and any other special considerations the board might add, Post said.
While some of the neighbors may object to the business, others may, in fact, be happy to see it there. “A lot of people come by and like to look at the old cars,” he said. The cars on the property would be rearranged to make the lot more attractive and the fencing will be extended, King said. “We’re a business that wants to look pretty.”
Tom Francello, a member of the Town’s Shade Tree Commission, asked about whether the owners of the facility would be planting trees along Route 9W. He suggested that the owners of the lot could put a curb cut at the front, and fence the entire front of the property, though it might take some time, given the need for permits.
Following comments from the public, Post suggested that King and his partner, Brian Morris could put in a curb cut if they constructed a gate in the fence. Post suggested that the gate could be made of the same material as the fence and would look like a section of the fence.
In further discussion, Rinaldi and King discussed plantings along the border of the property, specifically tall grasses along the fence line except right in front of the proposed gate.
The public hearing will remain open and be continued at the next Saugerties Town Planning Board meeting on December 21.
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