Auto shop vote takes a U-turn Auto shop vote takes a U-turn (July 01, 2005)

Moffett Boulevard neighbors cheer, but business owner angry at council's waffling

By Jon Wiener

Tirdad Bayegan will not get to move his business to Moffett Boulevard after all. In fact, he might be leaving Mountain View altogether.

Just two months after getting permission from the city to move his auto repair shop from North Bayshore to Moffett Boulevard, Bayegan was back in the council chambers Tuesday night.

This time, facing a group of neighbors wanting to keep auto repair businesses from moving back into their neighborhood, the council voted 4-3 to overturn a conditional use permit it had authorized back in mid-April. Laura Macias was the one council member to change her vote.

"The issues you've brought are well worth considering," Macias told a group of neighbors and nearby business owners who expressed concerns about the parking and noise impacts of an auto repair shop. Many of them had signed a petition presented to the council.

Bayegan had a different response. "We are just victimized because we service you guys' cars," said Bayegan, motioning to the crowd.

Afterward, outside the council chambers, Bayegan said he was disappointed in the change, which came after he had agreed to abide by half a dozen restrictions on his business suggested by the council.

"You cannot work in a in a society that they make up their minds one way and then change them," said Bayegan.

But four council members -- Nick Galiotto, Mike Kasperzak, Macias and Mayor Matt Neely -- said that allowing an auto shop to reopen at 165 Moffett Blvd. would be a much worse change.

"This really (would) break faith with the vision that the city had for upgrading Moffett," said Kasperzak, referring to a five-year-old initiative to attract higher-end, lower-intensity businesses to the area by enforcing penalties against auto shops and other code violators. Kasperzak also expressed concern that other auto shops would see the council's decision as an invitation to return to Moffett Boulevard, a prospect Galiotto called "several steps backwards."

Zoning administrator Al Savay said the city has already heard from real estate brokers interested in relocating auto shops to Moffett.

Council members Tom Means, Matt Pear and Greg Perry agreed that an auto shop like Bayegan's All Automotive, which specializes in on-board computer repair, would probably be the lowest-impact use out of all the options for the site.

"You're never going to have a use that's going to work here, because of the parking," said Pear.

Perry said that auto repair shops exist next to residential areas all over the city, and don't always cause blight. He got the rest of the council to agree to revisit the issue of parking shortages in so-called "commercial-residential arterial zones" such as Moffett.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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