Final zoning agreement for firefighters flea market is close

MATAMORAS —The borough’s Planning Commission on Tuesday night agreed to zoning changes that would make the Matamoras Fire Department’s weekend flea market permanently legal. Planning Commission Chair Gary Babb, who is also a deputy fire department chief and a former chief, said zoning map changes would rezone the parking lot at Airport Park from R1, residential, to R recreational. The rest of the department property would be changed to C1, neighborhood commercial. “That would allow the flea market as a commercial use,” he said. Borough officials, hearing noise and traffic complaints, shut down the long-lived flea market in June, saying the commercial activity was prohibited. A temporary permit restarted the market this month as negotiations for zoning changes continued. The borough council still must give final approval to the zoning change Babb said the department has relocated the market to cut down the noise. “There isn’t much we can do about the traffic,” he added.