Collision centre asking for a change of location and zoning in St. Paul to expand

Residents write back to council with concerns as they deliberate. 

A change of location and zoning was brought to the council’s attention during Monday night’s meeting. 

This was the council’s first reading for Black Ace’s relocation and to be changed to an Industrial District. Black Ace is currently located at 4809 42 Street and is a Controlled Urban Development District Collision Centre. 

“We currently run a collision centre in St. Paul right now,” said owner Corwin Robinson.

“It’s a fairly small operation, but we’ve grown to the level where I think we need to expand.”

They are asking the council to look further into the new property at 5401 46 Street and to become an Industrial District. 

Robinson said that he did a lot of research on the property before bringing it to the council. He was told it was flagged as a commercial property and thought about what he could put on the property. 

“I see a lot of potential, even though we want to be deemed industrial in order to operate our business,” said Robinson. 

Residents in the area have concerns about the harsh chemicals being used in an auto body shop, including pollution of the lake, the well-being of individuals, and the fumes being vented out into the community. 

It was made clear that products being used in the industry have changed their chemical positions to be more environmentally friendly. Black Ace says they are also over-cleaning inside their building to help prevent environmental damage. 

“We’re constantly looking at improving our situation to make the environment better and keep a clean operation,” said Robinson.

After being approached by people in the community with concerns about the building, Robinson wants to make it clear that he wants customers and residents to feel like they are in a park-like setting. 

“But you don’t expect to be driving up to a collision shop, you’d expect to be driving up to a retail shop. That’s our goal,” said Robinson. 

Their intentions are to build on the west side of the property in order to be out of view of the residential area. 

“It was a great engagement with the community about their concerns,” said St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller. 

Miller said that they have sent the idea back to administration, and are waiting on their feedback to see whether they can improve the opportunity for the development. 

“We want people to understand, we’re not coming in here and building a train wreck. We want to fix cars. We want to have a shop that doesn’t represent industrial. We want the end result to be beautiful,” said Robinson.