The City Council unanimously voted to pass a motion introduced by Ward 5 City Councilor Dave Gamache to cap the number of used-car dealership licenses that can be granted from 52 to 50.
“Years ago, we were getting inundated with licenses, and I made the motion to cap it at 50, and after that there was an amendment to that bringing it to 52,” Gamache said. “I’d like to revert that back to 50 to keep it at a manageable number.”
Gamache said reducing the number of licenses that can be given away by two makes a difference even if the number seems minimal, especially if the dealerships are in an area that is not conducive to acceptance.
Ward 2 Councilor Peter McGinn agreed with Gamache.
“I remember when it was up to 52, I thought that was a mistake at the time,” McGinn said.
According to Gamache, there are currently 49 active licenses.
Ward 4 Councilor Julie Daigle also shared recent correspondence between her and Hemisphere Development regarding conditions at 15 King St. Last year, Daigle said she received calls on a regular basis from neighbors all across Ward 4 complaining of trash, a rodent infestation, and unsafe conditions of the chain link and other fences.
“Every couple of months I reach out to them (Hemisphere Development) for an update,” Daigle said. “Unfortunately, this correspondence is not really an update, it just says, ‘They’re continuing to evaluate their plans, they have removed some underground storage tanks back in the fall, and then after some persuasion through the building commissioner’s office they filled in a hole in the ground and cleaned up the fencing and the trash.’ So I will keep asking them to keep the property clean.”
Recent email correspondence to Daigle regarding 15 King St. also explained that “rodent and pest control continues” and that “the project owners are currently reviewing development options to move the development forward,” however, high construction lending interest rates are preventing the project owners from developing the site.
Anne Marie Tobin contributed to this report.
