Pictured is the vacant Rite-Aid at 811 North Main Street. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

A zoning variance for the newest location of the Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union has been approved by the city Zoning Board of Appeals.

The credit union is working to turn a long-vacant Rite Aid store at 811 N. Main St. into a new headquarters. John Felton, CEO of Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, spoke to Zoning Board of Appeals members about the variance and some specific items in regards to the petition. Specifically, the variance petition is for the warehousing of vehicles, something that is not allowed without approval from the ZBA.

A question was raised by the board about how the operation will be going about placing the vehicles that they have repossessed.

Felton said the cars are kept in the parking lot at the Lakewood branch. About five to 10 cars are repossessed a month, and he added most of those get redeemed.

“The individual that we take the car from has 10 days to redeem the car,” Felton said. “After that, depending on how we try to work with everybody, we might give them another two weeks to come up with the funds. At the end of the 10 days, if they are not going to repossess the car, we have an online website with the bidding process, similar to e-bay. People can bid online on the cars. Usually, that is maybe another 10 days.”

It was noted that cars are not taken until they sell, and the repo agent will have access to the repo garage during business hours. Sometimes he will need to come after business hours, but Felton said there is an agreement that he will not come in late at night and cars will be left at the repo yard, out towards Sinclairville, in that case and brought to them in the daylight.

For the new building where cars will be put, Felton said there is room to hold 15 cars at one time.

“Right now, the way it’s set, it can probably hold probably 15,” Felton said. “If the, and we doubt this, 15 should be enough, if we need more space than that, they do sell racks that you could pull the car in, lift it up, and put another one under that. But there is no plan for that.”

If there is an overflow, the cars will be parked at the Lakewood branch or at the corporate office next to Lighthouse Auto. Felton added that they do their best to work with families and United Way, doing a lot of work with struggling families in the community, so they do their best to not have to take someone’s car.

“Our focus is to keep people in transportation so they can stay employed,” Felton said. “But, at times you have to hold people accountable, and that does mean we take cars sometimes.”

Another question was raised by the board about the flooring material of the area where the cars will be parked, which Felton said is currently cement with tiles torn off. Drainage is built in for if cars come in with snow on them, and special concrete paint will be put down as well. The inside of the building was also discussed, which Felton said has dry wall, a fire wall, all fire codes are met, there is a sprinkler system, and an extra fan even though cars will be pushed in and not running, as the code required extra air circulation.

“All the cameras, all separate access, so again, our repossession agent can just come in, he doesn’t disrupt business,” Felton said. “He has access to the garage. It is basically a garage door that we are looking to add to it. I think it might be 11 feet, 11 five, so slightly taller than what we have at home.”

Code Enforcement Officer, Kenny Garcia, was also asked in regards to this project about the difference between labeling something warehousing versus a garage.

“We looked at that, and because there is no repair going on, because it is longer than I would say, the one to five day turn around with a car actually being in on a lift, and things happen and that’s when oil spills, or any of your gas leaks or anything like that will happen,” Garcia said. “None of that is actually happening so it didn’t really frame in that category, plus that is actually not allowed in this zone, so I didn’t want to call it that. It’s not apples to apples. Warehousing is the best fit that I could find for something like this. It seems that this is going to be upwards to 30 days per vehicle. That would be if it was sold after the fact in a little bit. So, I would say that that is the closest fit that we have to this particular use.”

Following no public comments or other questions from the board, the ZBA officially approved the variance for the project.