County relaxes junk-car rules

The county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday that allows home auto repair in residential areas — provided the property owner only works on his own vehicles — and allows for the storage of inoperable vehicles for up to 60 days. After that, the vehicles must be screened so they cannot be seen from neighboring properties.

The ordinance allows two cars per acre, with a maximum of five. Smaller properties can have one car.

A committee of car hobbyists and neighborhood activists developed the new rules. The previous ordinance did not allow any home auto repair or storage of unregistered vehicles.

One committee member objected strongly to the ordinance. Judith Meyer of the Tucson Mountain Association said the ordinance needs to distinguish between inoperable vehicles that could be repaired and junk cars that are just trash.

But car hobbyists and county zoning officials said such a distinction is too subjective to enforce.

Other neighborhood representatives on the committee said they preferred to see that distinction made, but they still supported the ordinance.

Supervisor Sharon Bronson said she shares their concern and asked that the ordinance be re-evaluated in a year.

It goes into effect in 30 days.

In other business, the supervisors gave permission for county employees to vote on a union to serve as their authorized representative.

The Service Employees International Union has been recruiting members away from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which only has around 200 members among the roughly 6,000 county employees.

The SEIU sought the vote to create a formal "meet-and-confer" process, including at least one meeting before the county prepares its budget.

Public workers in Arizona cannot engage in collective bargaining. Until now, any union that could collect 200 signatures could speak for workers.