By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
An up-and-coming entrepreneur will get a chance to see his dream realized while an established business will lay the foundation for an expansion thanks to request approvals from the Bucyrus Board of Zoning Appeals.
Levi Rowe originally requested approval for a Home Occupation to operate his automobile detailing service and repair business out of a garage at 710 Plymouth St., formerly home to Spencer’s Mowing and Landscaping.
“We got everything moved in and everything ready,” Rowe explained to the board. He said he then received a letter from the city informing him of zoning issues.
The property resides in an Urban Neighborhood Residential District, which is not zoned for commercial use. Though Spencer’s operated there for a number of years, the business also obtained a substitution from the Board of Zoning Appeals. That substitution did not carry over for new businesses.
Rowe is renting the property from the owners of Spencer’s Mowing and Landscaping, Spencer and Amanda Perdue.
The board members seemed to like the plans Rowe had laid out for his business, which would only operate from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
“I know this is going to be a rockin’ business because of my attitude and his attitude and because of what we want to do,” Rowe’s father, Dan Rowe, said. “We want to go as far as we can to build our clientele and customer base.”
Mayor Jeff Reser, who resides in the area of the proposed business, backed Rowe and his family.
“Small business has really taken a hit in the country in the last eight years,” said Reser, who owns Lee’s Comfort Shoes. “New small business starts are down about a third . . . the flavor that we have here in town with our mechanics, our shops, our restaurants, our bakeries, florists, dress shops, shoe repair – all that stuff adds to the flavor.”
Reser added that the property has never been an issue when other businesses set up shop there.
“I think if we got somebody opening a small business here, I think we should try to do everything we can,” he said.
As the board approved the request amended as a substitution, Dan Rowe clapped his smiling son on the back.
The board denied a conditional use request from the Perdues for that same location. Zoning Administrator John Rostash said the application request was not in the board’s purview.
The board also approved a request from J&F Construction for permission to temporarily use stone as a surface material for a new drive and trailer parking area at Advanced Fiber Technology. The stone will be in place for two to three years to ensure stabilization of the sub-base material prior to applying a hard, durable, dustless surface.
“We’ve had our challenges with the subsurface,” explained Doug Leuthold, CEO of Advanced Fiber Technology. “We’ve ran into sand veins and we’ve ran into situations of water flowing through the sand veins.”
The company is looking to expand its complex further east, but it needs time to allow the situation to stabilize before a final decision is made on whether the company will go with reinforced concrete or asphalt for its parking lot. Leuthold said they plan to separate the docks for the raw materials and finished product by adding new docks to the east side where the raw materials are already stored.
“This gives us an opportunity to find out what sort of beast we have on our plate,” Leuthold said.
The board members brought up concerns over dust arising from trucks and trailers driving through the lot, but J&F Construction President Jim Mayes assured that it wouldn’t be much of an issue. He explained that the type of stone used becomes “pretty dustless” once packed in place. Mayes added that the neighboring fields would probably create more dust than trucks and trailers pulling into the lot.