Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 2:54 AM | Published: April 21, 2022
MOORE, OKLA (Free Press) — On April 18th, the City of Moore had a long and contested debate around a proposal to enact more limits on local wrecker services and impound yards.
The City would also change some regulations on landscaping, making the meeting’s focus on Moore’s community development division.
Wrecker, towing service complaints
The City of Moore has proposed a plan to address residential issues with the visibility of wrecker services near suburban areas. According to residents, wreckers often have several cars outside fencing, with some sitting in the same place for years.
Community development director Elizabeth Weitman proposed several new restrictions on wrecker services and other impound or repair-based companies.
One rule maintains that all cars are unloaded, loaded, and stored behind fencing. Another makes sure that there is paved customer parking and roadway approaches for all wrecker and towing services approved after April 18th, 2022. Weitman said that this does not apply to existing companies.
These new regulations would be enforced by an annual inspection of storage yards for all new licenses and renewals. Fencing and storage capacity would be inspected, as well as a check for any abandoned cars since new regulations prevent a vehicle from being stored for over 1 year, unless caused by extenuating circumstances.
Wreckers and other companies affected by these changes would have one year to comply with the new rules.
Company owners respond
A few local wrecker owners came to the meeting to explain their critiques with the new regulations.
One owner said that these rules were thrown onto them, and that the questions they had about the new proposal went unanswered by Moore City staff.
One of his biggest issues was with the fact that the proposal forces wrecker and impound companies to take credit cards as valid payment.
According to him, “The person who is the owner of the car is not authorizing the tow of that vehicle. They can call their credit card company and decline the charges.”
When the owner of the vehicle declines the charges, his company must fight to get the charged money back.
Another explained that cars sit in storage because the wreckers rely on insurance company decisions to determine how and where cars will move.
Once, a good-condition car had its title junked because the insurance company could not find it.
“Well now we found it, and what does the insurance do, they leave it with me. They don’t pick it up, they don’t pay my bill, they don’t do anything.”
He makes the case that wrecker and towing companies are already strained as the rules are, and adding more regulations would only make their business harder to maintain. They often cannot control the flow of cars in and out of their storage facilities, as car owners, insurance, local government, and even credit card companies can prevent their business from operating efficiently.
After hearing the arguments from local wreckers, the Council decided to table the proposal and try to come to an agreement at a later date.
The City acknowledges the work Elizabeth Weitman and the community development staff put into the proposal, but values the input of the citizens enough to look for an alternative. For the Citizens of Moore who called for the City to address the issue, a consensus will have to be reached with more input from the local companies affected by the regulations.
Landscape Regulations
City staff was asked to compare landscape regulations with other municipalities. They find that most other peer cities require more open space than the City of Moore does.
The update would double landscape open space requirements from 5% to 10%, and require more diverse plant species in landscaping design code.
Other code changes protect city utilities and water meters from tree damages, limiting both size and distance.
The Moore City Council will meet again on Monday, May 2nd, at 6:30 PM.
Damian Powell is our government reporter for the smaller municipalities in the OKC metro such as Moore, Norman, Bethany, and Warr Acres. Damian is studying Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.
