WILTON – Planners amended the hours Brown’s Auto Body on Route 2 can operate when they met Thursday. Neighbors in support of the business, owned by Noel Brown, attended the meeting.

A use permit Brown obtained in 1995 states his hours of operation to be 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Brown said that while the use permit refers to both his auto body and used car sale businesses, it was meant to only apply to the car sales since the auto body business had already been in operation for some time.

Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff agreed that this was probably the case. “I do not know why the auto body business was included on the permit,” she said.

Brown said there has never been a limit on the hours he could run his auto body shop, nor were there any hour restrictions when the shop was owned previously.

He asked that his hours of operation be changed because he sometimes receives vehicles early in the morning and has recently been doing work earlier in the morning to enable him to close up earlier at night due to the summer heat. In addition, with the hours stated on the permit, he would be unable to work on his own vehicles at other times.

Several neighbors who attended the meeting told the board they have never had any problem with noise from the business and that Brown has been a good neighbor. But one couple who Brown said lives more than 200 feet from the business and whose home sits behind woods, has called the Wilton Police Department on several occasions to complain of noise and lights shining toward their home.

William and Vera Van Ginneken wrote a 7 page letter to the board asking that Brown not be allowed to do any work before 7 or 8 a.m. They stated that they are the only neighbors close enough to be affected by the noise. They added that Brown had been in violation of the use permit the town gave him.

Medcoff said she spoke with two attorneys from the Maine Municipal Association who recommended that planners allow Brown to stay open until 6 p.m. and possibly ask that he put in sound proofing and ask wreckers not to use their back up alerts late at night. They said they feel that if the board allows Brown to work seven days a week and late at night, the decision could be overturned by a court or Appeals Board. Medcoff said while there is no noise ordinance in town, there are state nuisance laws and the requested hours could be considered excessive.

Planners disagreed with that assessment. They said they feel the original regulations for the auto body business should be adhered to since it is clear that a mistake was made when Brown applied for a use permit to operate a car sales business. The board voted to amend the permit and extend the hours to 6 a. m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday and any other time the business may warrant.

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