AUBURN – The office for Scott Thayer’s used car dealership is a hectic place.

Thayer, his sales staff and part-time assistant share a 10-foot-square space on the Washington Street rotary, as do mechanics coming in and out of the garage. There’s barely room for the people who work there, let alone customers who might want to talk about taking a car off the lot.

Thayer wants to build a second floor, adding about 280 square feet to his 780-square-foot building.

But city codes and the economics of building construction won’t let him. He and local planner Jim McPhee are hoping to give city planners more authority to approve such expansions.

“Auburn is supposed to be very business friendly,” Thayer said. “Here’s something that’s very small business friendly. Let’s see if they pass it.”

Thayer’s problem is that his used car lot doesn’t fit existing city zoning codes. To be allowed to expand, he’d have to landscape a 10-foot-wide strip around the perimeter of his building. That would cut the number of cars he can stock on his lot almost in half and would hide the rest from would-be customers driving past.

“That kills me,” Thayer said. “I can’t do it.”

City codes allow the Planning Board to make exceptions, but Thayer would have to hire an engineer to draw up detailed plans and pay a $450 filing fee to get the board to review it.

And after all that, there would be no guarantee they would pass it. Thayer said he can’t afford to invest that much money up front in something that might fail.

“As a small businessman, you can’t do that,” Thayer said.

Down on Mill Street in New Auburn, Timmy LaRochelle is in the same boat. Business at his Always Fresh LaRochelle Seafoods has tripled in the past two years. He’s looking for some space for a business office and a place to store boxes. He wants to add a half-story to the main roof of his shop.

“I can’t afford to hire an engineer to do something that a good contractor can do,” LaRochelle said.

One solution

McPhee’ solution, which is on the council’s Sept. 7 agenda, is to let nonconforming businesses present their changes to city staff for approval. That could mean no filing fees and no engineering plans. If staff approved, the business would get its expansion. If staff didn’t, the business could pay the $450 filing fee and appeal to the Planning Board.

“Just about anywhere you stand in town, I can point to one or two businesses that would benefit from this,” McPhee said. “These are not big expansions, but big enough to have an impact on the businesses themselves.”

The Planning Board endorsed McPhee’s plan on May 11 and it was scheduled to go the council the following week. Councilors wanted to discuss the matter in a workshop before voting, however. The plan was tabled for one week, and then another while councilors worked on the budget.

Thayer said he’s frustrated by the delay.

“I’ve had one contractor standing by, ready to do the work,” he said. “I could have had the work finished and been moved in, with all the time it’s taken to get to this.”