HARRISON TOWNSHIP — In northern Montgomery County, some elected leaders said no more car-related businesses.
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On Wednesday, we met Mac Williams as he was paying a bill at the Harrison Township government center.
Mac Williams knows the community well; he has lived in the township for over 25 years.
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News Center 7 asked him about all the car-related businesses here.
“I guess there are quite a few,” Williams said.
Township trustees just voted to say no more of those businesses for at least the next year.
“We don’t need as many car lots and auto body shops, but that is a majority of the applications that we’re getting for a lot of our empty lots right now. So to help prevent oversaturation of the market,” Nathan Edwards, Harrison Twp. economic development administrator, said.
News Center 7 drove around Harrison Township for ourselves on Wednesday afternoon.
Over a trip that was less than a mile and took just a few minutes, we spotted at least 24 car-related businesses.
We found stretches of several in a row or right across the street from each other.
Township officials said they’ve put temporary business bans in place before, like one for gas stations a few years ago, that they think were effective.
For the next year, the township said this moratorium is aimed at diversifying new business development.
“Any vibrant community you need restaurants, you need retail, you need doctors’ offices. We want to open up for different kinds of developments, so you don’t have three auto body shops right next to each other. You don’t have four used car lots right next to each other on the same strip.” Edwards said.
News Center 7 asked Williams what he thought of the move.
“Well, that really sounds like a wise thing to do,” Williams said.
Current car-related businesses are not impacted by this moratorium.
Neither are current developments in progress, nor are they already-approved development applications in that space
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