The 4–6 Pheasant Run “Identity Crisis”
When innovation meets a mid-century rulebook: how a clean, high-tech surface-protection operation got treated like a “service station”—and why the parking math exposes the bigger problem.
When Innovation Outpaces the Vocabulary
A modern business can be clean, quiet, and low-impact—and still end up stuck in regulatory purgatory when the zoning code doesn’t have the right words for what it does.
That’s the story at 4–6 Pheasant Run, where a surface-protection operation has been classified as an “E12 Service Station”—a label that, in plain English, evokes repair bays, oil, fumes, and high-turnover traffic.
The “Gas Station” That Isn’t
The conflict starts with a classification: the zoning officer placed Gary Weber’s surface-protection business into the “E12 Service Station” bucket—an industrial-era category that treats the tenant like a grease-stained auto shop or a high-turnover petrol station.
“I don't want to put myself in place of second-guessing the zoning officer, but this seems fairly far removed from [an automotive shop].”
— Newtown Planning Commission Member
During the Planning Commission hearing, the applicant’s attorney acknowledged a “proofreading error” in the narrative—an omitted “not” that made the description sound more “automotive” than intended. But even with that clarified, the service station label stuck, pushing the applicant toward a use variance.
What Actually Happens Inside The Building
Step inside and you don’t find a repair garage. You find a tidy, controlled environment with a digital-to-physical workflow:
- Precision prep: “Computer sizing” to match exact surface specs (car panels, countertops, etc.).
- Material: A multi-layer protective film (described as 2mm thick), USA-made plastic.
- Activation: Adhesive activated with a simple water + shampoo mixture.
- Application: Hand-applied and squeegeed—no spray booths, no fumes, no respirators.
In other words: nothing is sprayed or brushed on, and the typical environmental hazards people associate with “auto service” aren’t part of the process.
Sustainability in the Stalls: “Clean Tenant”
The applicant describes the operation as low-impact—and backed that up with infrastructure investment: a $10,000 water separator tank system intended to capture and filter minimal runoff from the water-and-shampoo application.
The Planning Commission recommendation included a clear condition: the discharge from the facility should not connect to the public storm sewer system, reinforcing the idea that the business can operate responsibly without becoming an environmental burden.
The Parking Paradox: 90 Spaces vs. 19
Here’s where the ordinance reality-checks itself
Because the site is being treated as a “Service Station,” the code’s parking math demands a staggering 90 parking spaces—the kind of requirement built for constant in-and-out traffic.
But the actual site has a dedicated field of 19 spaces, and the operator notes that’s sufficient for a maximum of 10 employees. This is the definition of a “zoning ghost”: a requirement that haunts an application despite having little to do with real-world operations.
Beyond the Garage: It’s Not Just Cars
Another reason the “service station” label looks outdated: the work isn’t limited to vehicles. The protective films are applied to:
- High-end residential and commercial countertops
- Marine vessels (boats)
- Aircraft surfaces for long-term preservation
Much of that work is off-site or on surfaces that have nothing to do with gasoline, fueling, or mechanical repair. This is a modern “specialized contractor” / “flex” use—part service, part light-industrial, part precision application.
So what Happens Next?
The Planning Commission recommended the Board of Supervisors take “no position”—leaving the decision to the Zoning Hearing Board while implicitly acknowledging that the code may need a modern update.
There was also a forward-looking suggestion: explore the overlay district passed last year, which may be a better long-term home for newer business models that don’t fit neatly into legacy categories.
The takeaway
This “identity crisis” isn’t just about one tenant. It’s a preview of what more municipalities will face as clean, tech-driven operations blur the old lines between “retail,” “service,” and “light industrial.”
The big question: Are our local laws evolving fast enough to welcome 21st-century business models—or will outdated definitions keep turning modern “flex” uses into zoning misfits?