HADLEY — As renovation of a commercial garage at 371 River Drive for an auto repair and detailing shop continues, a lawsuit in Hampshire Superior Court is seeking to stop the project.
Philip Ciccarelli, a neighbor on Comins Road, recently filed an appeal of the Planning Board’s April decision to approve site plans for the owners of Exotic Auto Repair on Route 9 to reuse the former North Hadley Auto garage.
Michael Pill, a lawyer with Green, Miles, Lipton LP of Northampton, representing Exotic owners Paul Narus and Davinder Kaur, said Tuesday he is actively engaged to resolve the lawsuit with Mark Tanner of Bacon Wilson, PC, who represents the plaintiff.
“We’re working very hard to settle the case,” Pill said.
Pill said that the Exotic Auto owners understood that they were taking a risk in commencing work, which has included removing the original roof and putting in a new one that is 4 feet higher and will allow installation of a new vehicle lift.
The property has been vacant for several years.
, but could have up to 10 total cars on site for sale or awaiting repair.
“We think the place will be greatly improved over what it was — it will be better maintained and better organized, and environmentally will be better protected,” Pill said.
Though the board is named in the lawsuit, Planning Board Clerk William Dwyer said the practice of similar lawsuits has been to have an applicant defend the decision in court. During discussions at hearings, board members acknowledged that the property, which opened as Lesko’s Garage in 1946, is a pre-existing, nonconforming building, and that any changes would make it more nonconforming.
The hearings on Exotic Auto became controversial in the winter when then Planning Board member John Mieczkowski made what some residents considered racially insensitive remarks about the owners.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
