Calanni Auto Service Denied Request to Add Parking Spaces

A Lakewood businessman was denied a request to add a few more parking spaces to his Madison Avenue auto repair shop.

That ruling by the , came after a court battle earlier this year between the city and Charles Calanni over the number of cars he’s allowed to have parked in front of the business.

Calanni, who owns , at 13728 Madison Ave., applied for a redesign of his parking lot with the city’s architectural board of review.

His request was denied.

City inspectors have reported that there are often more than a dozen vehicles parked in front of the business — despite only allowing eight.

Calanni was found guilty of failure to comply in in April 2011 for having too many cars parked in front of the business. His .

Calanni, who has owned the business since 1979, told Lakewood Patch on Thursday that he doesn’t agree with the city’s assertion that agreed in 1984 to limit the number of cars in his lot to eight.

“I think it’s strange that they produce this document from 1984,” he said. “They didn’t have a problem for all these years and now they’ve got a problem.”

In his application to the city, Calanni argued that he doesn’t need to comply with city ordinance because he believes the business is “grandfathered in.”

He also claimed that if reduced to eight parking spaces, the restriction would “effectively put (him) out of business.”

In December 2010, after “continued non-compliance,” the city issued Calanni a citation for “failure to comply with building violations” in violation of Lakewood Codified Ordinances 1306.99, according to court records.