Scrap metal yard draws complaints from Portsmouth neighbors. Owner is 'taking steps.'

PORTSMOUTH — A longtime Jones Avenue resident contends a scrap metal business that operates in the neighborhood is disrupting the lives of nearby residents with noise, traffic and dust.

Donald Stickney, who lives across the street from the MAC Metals scrap metal yard — which was formerly known as Wentworth Scrap Metals — said the facility at 246 Jones Ave. should not be operating in a mostly residential neighborhood.

“It’s the noise, the traffic, the dust, the oil spills all the way up the street and the vibrations,” Stickney said. “To be inside your home and have your home shake from dropping dumpsters and dropping I-beams, it’s a complete disruption to the neighborhood.”

Scrap metal business is a permitted use

Bob MacDonald purchased the property in 2017 and “through his business MAC Metals, continued to operate the property as a scrap metal yard,” Deputy City Attorney Trevor McCourt wrote in a memo to the City Council. “Mr. MacDonald also operates a construction firm known as MAC Construction out of his property located at 1088 Portsmouth Avenue in Greenland. This past spring, MAC Construction was the successful bidder to complete the city’s Union Street Sewer Separation project.”

McCourt acknowledged “over the past several months, the city has received many complaints regarding noise and other activities at” the scrap metal yard site.

“These complaints stem both from ongoing use of the property as a scrap metal yard, and from the increased truck traffic on Jones Avenue,” McCourt wrote. “Traffic significantly increased at the end of the summer due to the use of the property as laydown for the city’s Union Street Sewer Separation Project.”

McCourt explained the use of the property as a scrap metal business is a “lawful, preexisting nonconforming use.”

Operating the property as a “scrap metal yard, although this use would seem to be inconsistent with the surrounding residential uses in the neighborhood … must be permitted to continue,” McCourt said.

However, “using 246 Jones Avenue for laydown for off-site construction is not a permitted use of this property,” McCourt wrote.

But the “zoning ordinance makes (an) exception when it is for a city project,” he said.

Attorney for city provides update on issue

McCourt noted MacDonald “has taken steps to reorient the city project in an attempt to reduce the truck traffic on Jones Avenue,” in response to the complaints from residents.

“Further, city staff are currently working with Mr. MacDonald to identify alternative properties within the city to use as laydown when the Union Street project resumes in the spring,” McCourt said.

Stickney contends “things have not gotten better” in the neighborhood when it comes to living with the business.

“It’s not enjoyable losing sleep over this, having infants woken up,” Stickney said. “When they start working and pulling trucks out at 4 a.m., including doing snow plowing …of course it’s woken me up, my children up and other children on the street."

Dump trucks coming and going

Life in the Jones Avenue neighborhood started changing in 2017 when MacDonald bought the property and began to “expand the business,” according to Stickney.

“Excavators and front-loaders are not quiet machines,” he said, adding there are “dump trucks coming and going all day. He’s running a construction operation out of a residential neighborhood."

He acknowledged “there’s been a scrap metal location across the street for 50 years, but it was always operated with respect and care for the abutters.”

Stickney said he and other neighbors have reached out to the city for help for several years, but he feels “the city has not engaged in the slightest.”

He believes the city is going easy on MacDonald because his company is working on the project for the city.

“No one from the city is doing anything to protect the residential neighborhood,” he said.

Stickney acknowledged the scrap metal operation has been a permitted use at the site.

But he believes “when a non conforming use is altered or expanded, the grandfathering (of the business) is nullified.”

Neither City Manager Karen Conard nor McCourt could immediately be reached Wednesday to respond to Stickney’s comments.

Owner's attorney says he is working on solutions

Attorney Colby Gamester has represented MacDonald in discussions with the city.

Reached late Wednesday afternoon, Gamester noted that “Mr. MacDonald operates within the limits of his business.”

“He has worked closely with city staff whenever there are issues, concerns or complaints,” Gamester said.

The business owner established “lines of communications” with city officials to talk about any issues, and they “remain open to this day,” Gamester said.

He added that any increase in traffic is tied “to the city project at Union and Middle streets.”

“Mr. MacDonald has met with city staff regarding this specific aspect of the project to discuss mitigation steps to put in place when construction resumes in the spring,” he said.

The goal of those discussions, Gamester said, is to “continue the city project without affecting the Jones Avenue neighborhood as much.”

Work on the project is “slated to end before the holidays,” and Gamester anticipates “traffic will be significantly reduced.”

He stressed that the city is working with MacDonald to “reduce any inconvenience due to the city’s project.”

Mayor Deaglan McEachern pointed to the city’s response to the complaints that McCourt outlined in his memo.

“We’ll check back to make sure they’re complying with everything,” he said.

He said he hopes the business can find a different laydown site for the sewer separation project.

“That’s something we’re going to revisit before the spring,” McEachern said. “We should have had more conversations about that.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Scrap metal yard draws complaints from Portsmouth neighbors