Martin wants to clean up county:Junkyard laws collide with property rights
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“I’ve got neighbors up and down through here who want them gone,” Martin said.
According to Martin, the junkyards don’t meet regulations governing such businesses. He cites a private act enacted in 2000 to address such issues in Warren County.
The junkyards Martin is concerned with are located on Leesburg Road and McReynolds Road. The individuals Martin indicates are operating these businesses are Johnny Ledbetter, Ricky Johnson and Jimmy Hobbs, all of whom Martin says, as far as he can ascertain, do not have valid state licenses to operate this type of business.
Though Martin says Hobbs is making an effort to meet standards, he still does not have a state license and though some areas of his business currently have privacy fencing, other areas don’t, according to Martin.
Hobbs, who reports he has been operating his business since around 1963, says he does have a county business license and was told that was sufficient.
“I don’t have a state license,” Hobbs said, “but I have a county license and they said that’s all I had to have. I have a sales tax number and all that. I’ve been to county meetings and put up a screened fence.”
Though Hobbs agrees the other businesses should probably try to meet the private act regulations, he feels they should have rights as property owners.
“The way I look at it, it’s their property,” Hobbs said, “and they can do whatever they want to with it. They pay taxes on it, they can do what they want to with it.”
On the other hand, Martin says the regulations set out in the private act should be enforced.
“We’ve already got a private act covering junkyards,” Martin said, noting even discounting the private act, the businesses still aren’t legal.
“They’re breaking the state law because they don’t have a state license,” Martin said. He has been pushing for the county to take legal action against these businesses, but two technicalities have been blocking his efforts.
The first is the fact that, as far as the licensing goes, Martin has been informed by Gary Kagle, the state official responsible for licensing in this area, that the state doesn’t have the resources to investigate the businesses at present.
The second controversy is a question of the wording in the private act. At a recent meeting of the county’s Planning Commission, attended by Martin and members of the Policy, Personnel and Legislative Committee, which Martin chairs, County Attorney Larry Stanley said, in his opinion, the language of the private act does not support legal action in this case.
“When we got ready to proceed with a suit on this,” Stanley said, “I went back and read our private act, and our private act says, on junkyards and whatever, it pertains to interstate highways and the primary highway system. Well, I gave you all my opinion that Leesburg Road was not a primary highway after I talked to TDOT.”
Martin went so far as to obtain a state attorney general’s opinion that he feels supports his stance, but Stanley again disagreed after reading the opinion.
“I agree with everything the attorney general says in it,” Stanley said. “But it doesn’t address this problem.”
Stanley said the attorney general’s opinion simply stated the private act was constitutional and was enforceable on roads in Warren County, but not specifically what type of road.
“I think we’re back to square one,” Stanley said.
According to Stanley, if the county took these businesses to court under the current language, it would probably lose, and the only way around this is to amend the private act, which would then have to go through the General Assembly. Martin disagrees, noting other counties, including Smith County, have used similar acts to control such businesses.
Though the situation involves controversial issues on how an individual can utilize their own property to operate a business versus public nuisance concerns, Martin says he will continue to attend Planning Commission meetings in an effort to get something done.
“I’m not going to drop it,” Martin said.