WEATHERSFIELD TWP. Board to decide zoning dispute

A neighbor claims a man is running two businesses from one location.
MINERAL RIDGE -- The Weathersfield Township Board of Zoning Appeals will decide May 12 whether a business on Woodfield Avenue has violated an agreement with the zoning board.
The board, which met Thursday, was asked by Velma Jean Wilkes, who lives across the street from Morocco Services Inc., 3008 Woodfield Ave., to review whether the business is properly operating as a nonconforming use substitution for the Residential-B (two or multifamily dwelling property) classification as agreed to by the zoning board.
Lou Morocco operates a construction business that remodels homes with fire and water damage.
The nonconforming use substitution has been in effect on the property for quite some time, zoning inspector Sherri Craver explained.
There had been a trucking business run on the property, but the approval of the nonconforming use last August by the zoning board down graded the use of the property to a lighter business use.
Craver said that there were three box trailers from tractor-trailer rigs on the property that are being used by the owner to store items related to his business. He has removed one of them.
Second business?
Wilkes and other residents are contending that Morocco is running a second business out of the property, an auto repair shop.
Dave Pugh, township administrator, said that when the zoning board originally granted the nonconforming use substitution, Morocco had agreed he would work on only his own vehicles on the property.
Pugh said while it is not actually illegal to run more than one business out of a location, Morocco had agreed under the terms of his nonconforming use substitution that he would not run a second business.
The township zoning office has filed a zoning complaint in Niles Municipal Court against the business for running the auto repair shop.