Bye bye to the Junkyards?

[floater]

Drove on Robinson to downtown, passed by dozens of junkyards. This is the one of the city's most egregious examples of lowest and worst use of land. Is land assembly possible to where we can finally say bye bye to these eyesores and make real use of this riverfront property? Perhaps the better question is, when do you guys think it will happen? Within the next five, ten, fifteen or twenty years?

By the way, checked out the skate park. It's larger than I thought, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for development or growth around it.

[metro]

they are working on it in phases but yes it is larger than it originally appears but its good that there is flat land around it so large shows can haul in ramps and whatnot

[mranderson]

Part of salvage yard row is the planned I-40, so those eyesores will be gone within a short amount of time. The others? Who knows. The sooner the better.

Just another example of the decay in Capitol Hill.

[Proactive Volunteer]

A couple of the salvage yards have been purchased and removed along the river. I agree that we need to expedite the removal of these ugly eye sores.

B&B Auto Recyclers has the most decent looking yard in all of Oklahoma City. It is so enviromentally friendly, that the cars are not on the ground!

Being in the automotive repair business, I have noticed that the trend is not to repair your car with new or salvage parts, but to throw your car away over a $500 or higher repair bill and go buy a new car with zero down and no payments for 6 months. This trend should help more salvage yards to go away.

[Patrick]

Seems like everything is throw-away now! I think that's what Kia was trying to get at when they developed a disposable car!

[Proactive Volunteer]

They sure were!! But have you noticed the way their prices keep going up?!

[Patrick]

That's the old American way.....make things cheaper and flimsier, then raise the rates so so you can make even more profits!

[Proactive Volunteer]

I talked to my automotive expert and he wanted me to point out that without salvage yards we would have more vehicles dumped. Salvage yards provide a recycling service for automobiles that is not offered by anyone else but maybe the scrap iron buyers.

So, when he pointed out this to me, I noticed that we do have a need for them, we just need to find proactive ways to improve their appearance!

[mranderson]

I talked to my automotive expert and he wanted me to point out that without salvage yards we would have more vehicles dumped. Salvage yards provide a recycling service for automobiles that is not offered by anyone else but maybe the scrap iron buyers.

So, when he pointed out this to me, I noticed that we do have a need for them, we just need to find proactive ways to improve their appearance!

Here is a way. Have a salvage yard area away from the incorporated area of the city. Similar to what cities used to do with animal shleters and "city dumps."

[Patrick]

Right on mranderson. I am not oppose to salvage yards and I definitely think there's a need. But, having them located right off I-40 close to downtown isn't very attractive. Many years ago when Oklahoma City was zoning land, they should've restricted salvage yards to a certain section of the city. Land out by the GM plant might be a better option....close to the city landfill!

Of course, now many people have a lot of money invested in their properties, so I don't know what the solution would be. Maybe requiring stockade fences to be built around junk yards would be a solution.

[mranderson]

Yes. A lot of money is invested.

I do not know if stockade fencing is enough. Some of the buildings look like dumps, and even without a mountain of salvaged vehicles, the place would still look like crap.

Have a program to rebuild these buildings along with a requiement they have car crushers and must use them within 30 days of the vehicle entering their property. Better yet, find some equipment to shred the metal and force them to sell to a recycle center. Of course, give them a chance to salvage parts.

[Patrick]

Problem is...many of these salvage yards keep the vehicles around longer to sell parts off of them to the general public. Once they are stripped of parts, they are then crushed.

My brother went out to a salvage yard awhile back to snag a transmission of a newer totaled pickup. The truck had only had 40,000 miles on it......so the used transmission was quite a bargain.

[Proactive Volunteer]

Patrick...you are so right. Many vehicles are kept in yards for years before they are determined to be ready to go to the scrap metal yard.

Permitting for new salvage yards is very stringent on requirements.

Also remember that our City grandfathers way to many things so if we did come in now and say they had to sight proof the yard and had specific requirements, it would be hard to get past the grandfathering.

[Keith]

I know that I have personally gone to salvage yards to get parts for a car, and just like Patrick said, it was well worth it. I realize that the downtown area is not the best place for a salvage yard, especially because it is an eyesore, however, I also know that I would not want one in my own neighborhood. Even if there was a stockade fence put up, the fence still would not be high enough to hide all the junkers.

I know that nobody wants a salvage yard even close to their neighborhood, so where else could they be located without being an eyesore?

[floater]

I know that I have personally gone to salvage yards to get parts for a car, and just like Patrick said, it was well worth it. I realize that the downtown area is not the best place for a salvage yard, especially because it is an eyesore, however, I also know that I would not want one in my own neighborhood. Even if there was a stockade fence put up, the fence still would not be high enough to hide all the junkers.

I know that nobody wants a salvage yard even close to their neighborhood, so where else could they be located without being an eyesore?

What about close to the landfill just north of I-240 west of Sunnylane? If there's one thing OKC has, it's land. The peripheral areas where new developments are not likely to occur, such as the aforementioned chunks west and south of Midwest City are possibilities.

[Keith]

That would probably be a good location. You know, they have the mile of cars in Norman.....why not have the mile of salvage yards on Bryant? Well, maybe not a whole mile, but enough of them to where if you needed a salvaged part for a vehicle, you would have a selection of salvage yards in one area.

They could locate them all north of the landfill so they would not be in view of I-40.

[Patrick]

Good idea, but it would probably be pretty costly for the city to relocate all of the salavage businesses.