On recent weekends, Kmart shoppers’ attention may have been diverted to an interesting little sale right outside the store. That is because residents on Saturdays have been leaving their vehicles parked – along with “for sale” signs – on the northeast edge of the store lot facing the busy commercial corridor.
It is unclear whether Kmart has been giving those vehicle owners permission to create a makeshift used car lot. The store manager referred questions to a company media department, which did not return Free Lance calls seeking comment.
While the city hasn’t licensed the improvised operations, Code Enforcement Director Mike Chambless said his department would have to receive a citizen complaint to respond.
He said he was unaware of the recent car sales at Kmart.
“If a bunch of individuals are just parking cars at Kmart’s parking lot and selling them, until Kmart says there’s a problem, there probably isn’t a problem,” Chambless said.
He said there must be a “victim” to address such situations.
“It is something we don’t have manpower to chase down,” Chambless said.
He said his complaint-driven system for deciding what to investigate is a result of lacking resources. Chambless himself spends 20 percent of his time on code enforcement and the other 80 percent as airport director, he said. Then there is one part-time code enforcement employee working 20 hours per week and another part-time person whose sole job is collecting money owed to Hollister.
To date this year as of Monday, there had been 224 citizen complaints to the department. In that same period, code enforcement issued 14 citations.
None of the complaints, however, were connected to residents selling items on others’ properties. And the city has not issued any related citations for those sales, either, according to figures provided by Chambless.
There have been no complaints to code enforcement despite there being a visible pattern in recent history involving makeshift sales operations cropping up on local business lots, with varying merchandise for sale such as cars, puppies or flowers.
“The only thing I’ve ever been involved with is making sure the flower people have their zoning clearance and business licenses,” he said.
With cars being sold on a makeshift lot, though, it presents competition of sorts for an array of licensed vehicle sellers in town.
Marty Greenwood, owner of Greenwood Chevrolet Buick GMC, said he has a “different take” on the matter.
“I just wish they knew we would buy a lot of those cars,” Greenwood said of the people selling their vehicles.
He said he did not have an opinion on the enforcement, but has wondered why the stores would allow it.
Chambless had mentioned another level of potential enforcement, that of criminal trespassing if residents conduct such sales without permission. Hollister Police Chief David Westrick said it is “not a problem” – his department looking into those matters.
“We can do that,” he said. “The owner of the property would need to give us a call. We haven’t received any calls from the owner of that particular piece.”
Police and animal control have been, however, enforcing illegal sales of puppies in business lots, he said.
“We’ve been addressing and continue to address it,” Westrick said, “because about a year and a half ago, two years ago, the governor signed specific legislation to make that a crime.”
MAKE A COMPLAINT
To get in touch with code enforcement, call (831) 636-4356.
CODE ENFORCEMENT
Year-to-date figures
Complaints: 224
Citations issued: 14
Complaints for selling on others’ property: 0
Citations for selling on others’ property: 0
