Phenix City Council revokes resident’s business license after complaints, citations
The Phenix City Council unanimously voted to revoke a resident’s business license after numerous notices and citations were issued over the last three years.
R.E. Recycling is an auto repair shop that buys old cars and uses the parts to repair clients’ vehicles at a cheaper rate, owner Chris Wilson told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Ray Rogers, a Phenix City building official, told the council that the building department has worked to get Wilson’s business to comply with city’s rules and regulations since September 2019.
The city responded to complaints about overgrown grass, a goat being kept on the premises, vehicles parked without permission in residential lots and a large number of cars parked on the business’ lot, officials said during the Sept. 7 council meeting.
In response, Wilson received multiple care of premises notices and citations from 2019 through 2022. He pleaded guilty to two citations for off-street parking and not having a business license in February 2021. Later that year in November, Wilson was found guilty of another care of premises citation he appealed. He was found guilty after a jury trial.
The notices did not explicitly inform him that any action could be taken against his business, Wilson told the L-E, and he felt blindsided when he was notified that his business license could be revoked.
When he received a warning, he said, it told him he had two or three days to move the cars on his lot and clean it up.
“In three days (an official) would come back,” Wilson said. “The cars would be moved, and the grass would be cut.”
When the number of cars built up again, he said, an official would return. Wilson admitted it usually took about a week for the cars to get out of control again, but told the L-E that the cars would be kept on R.E. Recycling property.
The vehicles were parked on the property and the road, Rogers said, creating a hazard and limiting the ability for buses, emergency vehicles and utility vehicles to drive through on the street.
“When they were saying people were parking in parking lots nearby or things like that, those were employees,” he said.
Wilson was given plenty of opportunities to make the changes needed to continue his business, Rogers told the council, but he failed to do so. Officials notified Wilson in July that they were recommending his business license be revoked.
Recycling business vs. auto repair business
R.E. Recycling was not an auto repair shop, Phenix City Police Chief Ray Smith told the council.
Wilson was running a recycling business like the name suggests, he said, because he was buying used vehicles and using the parts to make repairs and build other vehicles.
“The type of business that he actually was doing is not zoned for that area,” Smith said. “And that’s why we kept having problems with him bringing in scrap parts to that location.”
An auto repair business has to keep vehicles off the street and off the property, he said, but because Wilson was bringing in so many other vehicles for parts he was having trouble staying in compliance.
Smith said Wilson didn’t understand he couldn’t run this type of business at the location on 14th Avenue.
Wilson’s auto repair license was revoked, Smith said, because he was not just doing auto repair. The business owner was also selling vehicles without a license at the location as well, he said.
Wilson told the council that while he did sell vehicles from the location without a proper license, it was because he did not fully comprehend the laws surrounding licensing and zoning.
“Because he kept going and pushed the envelope,” Smith said. “We have gotten to the point now that Wilson will not follow the code and will not understand that he can’t do certain types of business at that location.”
Mechanics often use parts from other vehicles to repair clients’ cars, Wilson argued, and explained that he did the same for his customers.
Phenix City District 1 council member Steve Bailey said that if the business was named “Wilson’s Auto Repair’‘ and if some cars that came in were reused for parts then it would be fine. But because Wilson named the business “R.E. Recycling,” he was acknowledging that it was mainly a recycling business, he said.
The name of the shop shouldn’t matter, Wilson said, because the business was still an auto repair shop.
Ultimately, the description on the business license did not match the business being done at the shop, Phenix City Mayor Eddie Lowe told Wilson during the meeting.
“We want businesses in Phenix City,” Lowe said. “However they have to comply with the rules, regulations and the law.”
Wilson told the L-E that he plans to look into opening another business, but he does not expect it to be located in Phenix City.
