Derry residents voice displeasure over junkyard expansion
DERRY, Pa. (KDKA) - Some residents in Derry are fighting back against the township after learning a junkyard is trying to expand in their neighborhood.
According to two local ordinances in the township, the project should be stopped in its tracks, yet it is moving forward.
"We should not have to look out our window and see a junkyard across the road when we have an ordinance," Yvonne Earhart said. "It's terrible to do that to a 92-year-old man that has been here his whole life. He built his home and has to live here with a junkyard."
Earhart said her father has lived at his home for more than 60 years and is one of few residents on Horseman's Road in addition to Danser's Auto Parts at the end of the street.
She said for over a year, they've been fighting against the salvage yard expansion.
"It started out as a repo and somehow became a junkyard without anybody knowing," Earhart said.
According to Ordinance No. 23, created in 1973, no junkyard can be larger than 5 acres in the township.
Earhart said after several meetings, township supervisors have repeatedly told her and her father that the ordinance would stop the expansion.
She said in August, the junkyard got licensed, and by Sept. 2021, a new ordinance was created.
Paperwork shows Ordinance No. 175-2021, "The Township of Derry are desirous of updating the Townships ordinances concerning the regulation of junkyards to better protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Derry Township."
The ordinance states all junk must be set back at least 75 feet from the nearest right-of-way of any public street, road, or highway.
"The dirt pile to the highway is only 58 feet, and the dirt pile to the road is eight feet. Way in violation of the ordinances," Earhart said.
Earhart said the junkyard is in violation, but the township told KDKA they've never enforced either ordinance in more than 40 years.
A supervisor told KDKA the township has no zoning ordinance and claims, without that, it can't be enforced.
KDKA asked why the township would create and later update its junkyard ordinance if it can never be enforced. The solicitor said they thought they could regulate it, but without a zoning ordinance, nothing can be done.
"'We might not have the zoning,' is what they say. But there's ordinances," Earhart said. "People get fined all the time for disobeying ordinances. It's corruption at its finest over there."
The township supervisors nor the solicitor would talk to KDKA on camera Wednesday but said the junkyard is in compliance.
KDKA has reached out to the owner of Danser's Auto Parts and has not heard back yet.