HADLEY — More than three months after the city of Northampton ordered a regional auto dealer to remove some 300 vehicles being stored at a vacant King Street lot it owns, the dealership’s owners have zeroed in on a spot in Hadley to keep the new vehicles until they are sold.

The plan, as outlined at a recent Hadley Planning Board meeting, calls for TommyCar Auto Group to move the remaining 100 vehicles on the Northampton lot to a parking lot in front of the Pulse Cafe at 270 Russell St. The likely three-month arrangement would be temporary, Amherst attorney Tom Reidy of Bacon Wilson PC told Hadley planners.

Reidy said the company ordered the Hyundais two years ago, understanding the supply-chain delays, as part of the lead-up to opening a new dealership in Northampton.

“Just some short-term help,” Reidy said of the request of Hadley officials.

TommyCar has been unable to get Northampton Planning Board approval to operate a commercial parking lot for the storage of the cars at 171-187 King St., which had been used as a Don Lia Honda until 2005. The board also rejected plans for a subdivision for the same site, which TommyCar had initilly sought to use for a dealership.

Reidy explained that Carla and Tommy Cosenzi, who run five dealerships in the region, including Country Nissan at 40 Russell St., Hadley, have been unable to get the Northampton site, which has been paved over and where both a showroom and service buildings were demolished in 2014, ready for the dealership.

In fact, it’s possible the Northampton site won’t be able to be used in that way at all.

“They cannot put the dealership there,” Reidy said, explaining that there are stringent city zoning rules and the property is within the Central Business Gateway District. “The city of Northampton has form-based code, which is not conducive to auto dealerships, a; and b, the city changed the zoning.”

Though the Northampton City Council in May banned auto dealerships within the district, the Cosenzis could be allowed as a grandfathered use, though various zoning rules would still have to be followed.

In addition, TommyCar ran afoul of city zoning authorities by storing 300 vehicles from their various dealerships, on the site, and were sent a cease-and-desist notice by Building Commissioner Kevin Ross before the Northampton Planning Board in September rejected both the request for a commercial parking lot and for the subdivision.

Even though the temporary storage site is in Hadley’s aquifer overlay district, Hadley Planning Board Chairman James Maksimoski said he is comfortable with the proposal. Hadley has a rule that when more than five unregistered vehicles are parked in a location, they must be on an impervious containment area.

Maksimoski said he is not concerned that new vehicles would leak contaminants or pose a threat to the water supply or public health.

Planning Board Clerk William Dwyer said Pulse had already come up as a site for overflow parking for Steve Lewis Subaru, though that dealership later negotiated with the Salvation Army Thrift Store at 310 Russell St. to make that the site to park its excess cars.

Planning Board member Matthew Waldrip said his only concern was an assurance that the temporary use wouldn’t extend beyond three months.

Reidy said this would be the case. “These vehicles are being sold, not from here,” but at one of TommyCar’s other dealerships.

Still, Maksimoski asked what benefit Hadley is getting out of the arrangement of being the storage location for a Northampton dealership. He observed that the dealership is not paying taxes to the town.

He suggested a host-community agreement to calculate a financial contribution. That is something Reidy said the Cosenzis would be amenable to. “Something like that, I don’t think that’s out of bounds, to be honest,” Reidy said.

Maksimoski said Reidy should speak to interim Town Administrator Mike Mason about such a deal.

While the Pulse Cafe site is the likely spot for the vehicles to be parked, Reidy said two other options might also be available. One is the former Mi Tierra site, at 48 Russell St., which is immediately east of Country Nissan. That may not work out, however, as a renter is being sought for that site. The second option is a portion of the Hampshire Mall parking lot, 367 Russell St., where there is a significant amount of parking, but is farther from Northampton.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.