Scrap Yard Buffers May Be Required

The idea, said county Planning Director Judy Francis, is to improve the view for people who own property next to the scrap yards. Several such businesses predate the county zoning ordinance, adopted in 1999, and so were grandfathered in and allowed to keep operating.

But the Planning Department has received several complaints about the yards' unsightliness, Francis said. The county doesn't want to shut down legitimate businesses, but officials do want to make their neighbors happier, she said.

"The truth of the matter is, because of the topography in Burke County, it may be impossible to fully screen these properties, and we understand that and will work with them on that," Francis said.

The original proposal went before commissioners in February, calling for a 10-foot-high fence and vegetation 15 feet wide. But commissioners and Planning Board members worried about placing too heavy a financial burden on the business owners.

So planners decided to scale down the requirements and give scrap yard owners more than a year to meet the requirements, Francis said: "That will give them time to budget for it and get it done."

But some business owners are, not surprisingly, less than thrilled with the idea.

"I can't see it, myself. I feel like it's working against the American people," said Robert Crawley, who's owned C&L Scrap Metal on U.S. 70 in Connelly Springs for 28 years. "It's just like people want a place to dump their garbage, but they don't want it in their backyard, do they?"

County officials say the new requirement wouldn't unduly penalize legal businesses such as Crawley's -- unlike illegal ones, which operate without business licenses and without paying taxes.

The Planning Department knows of six illegal scrap yards in the county, Francis said. The department has either sent warning letters to the owners or forwarded the cases to the county attorney for prosecution as zoning violations, she said. Charlotte Observer