Posted: Sept. 8, 2009

West Allis — City officials say new restrictions on salvage yards will protect property owners, while some business owners say it unfairly targets their companies.

Salvage yards, recycling centers, waste transfer stations and other similar businesses are no longer allowed within 500 feet of a residential property under a new ordinance passed last week.

The new ordinance also dictates that containers, materials and business-owned vehicles must be stored indoors, that only customer and employee vehicles can be parked outside and that outdoor storage is prohibited.

Mayor Dan Devine, West Allis aldermen and other city officials said the law was created to protect residents and neighborhoods.

"It's protecting residents from finding a junkyard going in next door," Devine said.

But the owner of West Allis Salvage, 1911 S. 80th St., said the new rules unfairly punish his business.

Though, as an existing business, West Allis Salvage will not be subject to the new restrictions on its current site, owner Phil Rehberg said he had plans for expansion that can no longer happen because of the 500-foot rule.

The issue wrongly casts his business in a negative light, he said, noting that West Allis Salvage opened in 1938 and since that time has been a good neighbor.

"We still want to be here in the future. We think we're an asset to the community," Rehberg said, adding the law "cripples our future with the city."

Devine said the company can still expand. It just must be done within its current footprint - in other words, building up rather than building out.

Officials began exploring the issue after Franksville-based Sorce Services wanted to put a waste transfer station for salvage and construction debris and container storage at 6771 W. National Ave. City officials determined it couldn't open there because it was not permitted in its zoning ordinances.

But, in their research, those officials also discovered the city had no rules addressing how close the so-called "junkyards" can be to homes.

By law, the city has to allow a place for such businesses to exist in the West Allis. Thus, work began on the new ordinance.

A public hearing was held Aug. 4, when Rehberg and Sorce Services owner Dan Sorce spoke against the new rules. The Common Council passed the ordinance Sept. 1 on a 9-1 vote, with Alderman Vince Vitale.

The law kills Sorce Services' plans due to its proximity to the surrounding neighborhood, but there are plenty of places - particularly heavy manufacturing areas in the northwest and east sides of the city - that would be more than 500 feet from a home, Stibal said.