Race Car Business Can't Expand in Palmer

For more than 10 years, homeowners Michael and Stacey Curcio, at 1 Maplecroft Ave. in, have run a business out of their garage called, All Throttle Performance.

It’s a contract-only, engine restoration business that the Curcios want to expand by doubling the size of the garage. Their house sits between the and near off Route 248, across from .

But because a house is a residence and not a business, the denied the Curcios the variances they wanted.

The Curcios’ plans were to double the size of the floor area of the garage to a total of 1,583 square feet. The additional garage space is needed so that Michael Curcio can store his race car and trailer, along with the equipment he uses for his business, plus 15 to 20 engines.

“We wanted to match the roof line with the house,” Curcio said. “I just wanted to make it look correct, part of the neighborhood – not industrial.”

To do that, however, Curcio needed variances to the zoning ordinance because the new garage would be wider, longer, bigger and taller than allowed.

The zoning in that area is General Commercial, which allows mixed use and home-based businesses, but it does not allow a home to be treated as a business. Jim Raudenbush, Palmer’s zoning officer, told the board that even though the garage is used for a business, it is still an accessory to the house, which is used as a primary residence.

Nicholas Noel, the Zoning Board solicitor, also noted that engine repair is not permitted as a home occupation.

Louis S. Minotti Jr., Curcio’s attorney, disagreed that the garage is an accessory to the home. He said that since the garage has always been used for Curcio’s part-time business, that it should be categorized as a business and fall under the General Commercial zoning requirements.

The Curcios bought the house in 1997. Curcio said he began working on repairing and designing race car engines in the garage, part-time, since 1999, the year Palmer changed the zoning in that area from Residential to General Commercial.

Noel explained to the zoning board that the garage might fall under the legal principle of estoppel. This means that if the township has treated Curcio’s home as a business for the last 10 years or so, then it must now recognize it as a business, too, and consider the variances.

If Curcio had a business privilege license from the township, then that would have been proof Palmer considered his home’s garage a business. But Curcio could not produce a license

Since Curcio purchased the property as a home, and not as a business, the zoning board denied the variances.