Council supports Lynnway auto auction

LYNN – City officials – including several who a year ago said the waterfront isn’t a good location for an auto auction business – defended their support of a new proposal to put a different auto auction there.”What I see is a vacant lot, not being used,” Ward 6 City Councilor Peter Capano said of the proposed auto auction site on the Lynnway. “He’s talking about adding 200 to 250 jobs, and they might not be the best jobs, but they’re jobs.”Kenneth Carpi, who owns multiple properties on both sides of the Lynnway, according to his attorney and city records, wants to open an auto auction business on property he owns on the waterfront, which had been the site of Lynnway Auto Auction before it closed at the beginning of last year.Capano, who represents the ward where Carpi wants to open the new auto auction business, said in April 2010 in a Daily Item story when the former business announced it was leaving, “I wouldn’t say this is fortunate, but it’s good in a way because I’m sure there will be another use for that spot that is consistent with the waterfront plan.”Capano said he supports this latest auto auction proposal because if Carpi’s license is approved, he will have to reapply every year, giving the city the control it needs should a developer come in with a multimillion dollar upscale plan to redevelop the waterfront.He stressed that his support for the proposal does not mean he believes the auto auction is “my vision for the waterfront,” but rather a temporary solution that would bring much-needed jobs to the city.But James M. Cowdell, the Executive Director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn, whose main responsibility is to help develop the Lynn waterfront, said Friday allowing an auto auction to open there “hinders and it doesn’t help” that effort.”So, what we’re trying to do is change the image of Lynn” so developers will want to build on the waterfront, Cowdell said. “How does an auto auction change that image at all? Our message is we can do much better than that.”Cowdell believes that council support of the new auto auction violates a pledge they made when they unanimously approved the Waterfront Development Plan in 2007 to resist the temptation to allow businesses on the waterfront that aren’t consistent with the plan for mixed-use development there.”My position is consistent with the presentation I gave in 2007. That blueprint that was adopted clearly calls for a different type of use on the Lynnway,” Cowdell said. “You can’t make exceptions. Once you start making exceptions, now you don’t have that plan.””We only have one shot of doing this and we have to do it right,” he added.The type of mixed-use development that the master plan calls for includes a combination of residential and retail, and is also zoned for a hotel, Cowdell said.Instead of opening another auto auction business, Cowdell wants to work with Carpi to help him develop the land he owns with something that fits the master plan.”There’s a lot of balls in the air that we’re juggling right now. We’re watching very closely about a casino potentially opening there (in Revere at Suffolk Downs) ?” Cowdell said. “I was surprised (about the support for the proposal). It definitely is not a plus. When you’re trying to put a multimillion dollar development there, you don’t want to sell condos when you have an auto auction next door.”Carpi also promised to drop a lawsuit he filed against the city when the power lines were moved to clear development space on the waterfront and some were put on his property, his lawyer, Tom Demakis of Lynn said, if the city approves the license for the auto auction.Cowdell said city officials shouldn’t be worried about the lawsuit.”I’m not an attorney, but it’s a frivolous lawsuit,” Cowdell said. “To use it as leverage makes me laugh. I just don’t buy that argument.”Still, Capano doesn’t believe the new auto auction will ultimately hurt the development of the waterfront, and is relying on Carpi’s busines