City: Artificial turf not 'green' enough

By Christine Legere, Globe Correspondent

It may be green, but not in the eyes of city officials.

Three brothers who own the Prestige Car Wash on Pearl Street in Brockton thought that installing $20,000 worth of artificial turf would satisfy a city ordinance that requires green space between the street and the parking lot of a business.

But just as Nir, Yossi, and Ronen Drory were putting the finishing touches on their strip of faux grass, the city's building inspector, Joseph Vasapollo, dropped by to say they had to rip it up and replace it with the real thing.

"It all started with a complaint, and when one of our inspectors went down there, he saw the artificial turf," said Vasapollo. "I told them they had the right of appeal with the city's zoning board."

While the city ordinance, which is 968 pages long, doesn't define green space, Vasapollo described it as being "planted strips with grass, flowers, deciduous trees, or even mulch."

Last week, the Zoning Board of Appeals upheld Vasapollo's interpretation of the ordinance.

According to Vasapollo, the plans for the car wash, which required Planning Board approval, said the strip would contain loam and seed. "Then they did something else," he said.

The Drorys argue that the fake grass is the best way to keep the property looking good; city officials fear it could set a dangerous precedent.

In Yossi Drory's opinion, the definition given by the zoning board doesn't make sense.

"They say for it to be green space, it has to be alive," said Drory. "But mulch isn't green, and I don't consider it alive."

Ken Galligan, the city's fire chief and the only zoning board member willing to discuss the issue with the Globe, noted the dilemma.

"If you drive by, you'd say, 'What's wrong with the zoning board? This looks beautiful,' " he said. "But speaking as a member of the board, I can't say artificial turf is an acceptable substitute. In all cases, green space has meant something growing, like shrubbery, trees, and grass.

"There are too many questions that were not answered," Galligan said of his vote against the turf last week. "As somebody else commented, 'What's next, fake trees?' "

Galligan conceded the town's bylaws don't clearly define just what green space is. While no one at the hearing knew of any cities or towns in this state where artificial turf is acceptable, Galligan said, someone commented it is used in California.

Ronen Drory said what other property owners in the city do for green space generally ends up as an eyesore. "Nobody wants to keep up with green space, so they do the cheapest and ugliest thing they can and do mulch," said Drory, pointing to the property of an abutter. "If you put in grass, the city doesn't let you water it, so the grass turns brown. That's why we came up with this. You don't have to mow it and there's no run-off when it rains. The water is absorbed."

Galligan said zoning board members don't know what lies under the fake turf at the car wash.

"What if someone put down asphalt and covered it over with Astroturf?" Galligan said. "Water would be running onto neighboring properties. This seems like a very trivial thing, but if it is used in the wrong places, who knows what could develop? There are planning and conservation issues here."

The Drorys aren't ready to surrender and pull up their expensive "lawn."

As soon as the zoning board's decision is recorded in the city clerk's office - which is expected soon - the brothers say they will appeal the ruling in superior court. They have three weeks to file a court appeal.

"I've already told our lawyer to file it," said Ronen. "Hopefully, the judge will be more reasonable."

The Drorys have owned the Pearl Street property for about 10 years. It had been leased for several years to an auto transmission business that moved out. "This was probably one of the worst-looking places in Brockton," said Nir Drory. "We decided to turn it into a car wash."

The brothers constructed a new building, with a car wash behind it. A series of vacuum machines line the front. The operation has been open for about a month, and business appeared brisk even on a rainy day last week.

"This thing really blows my mind," said Ronen Drory. "It's not like this is Chestnut Hill we're in. This city is full of rundown properties and boarded-up buildings. We took an old property and improved it."

Brockton officials should keep up with the times, the brothers say.

"Fifty years ago, you built from wood, but now we use plastic," Ronen Drory noted. "It's a new world, and you use what works better."

Yossi Drory said the artificial turf is, in some ways, better for the environment than real grass. "You'd be using chemicals on real grass and using fuel to mow it. You would also have to use water," he said. "We're hoping we will get the support of the community on this."

In addition to the car wash, the trio own two gasoline stations in town. "We pay more than $30,000 in taxes to the city," said Ronen Drory.

"You would think the city would be more business-friendly," continued Drory. "This is clean. It's beautiful. It's something any city would wish for."

Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com