COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A new Greyhound bus station on the city’s west side is causing a stir among people in the neighborhood.

Community members say since the Wilson Road bus station opened three weeks ago, it’s brought criminal activity, safety and sanitation concerns.

Now, the Columbus Building and Zoning Department said the station is operating without a certificate of occupancy.

The new terminal is located at 845 N. Wilson Road. It used to be a gas station.

Zachary Whitt lives right around the corner.

“Everybody we’ve talked to is upset,” Whitt said. “The residents are upset, the businesses are upset, the employees are upset at the location and certainly the passengers.”

Whitt is a father and a husband. He said the terminal has caused problems since day one.

“My son and I, he’s a toddler, we go out and get the mail together every day. It’s kind of a fun little father-son thing,” he said. “The very first day he said, ‘Daddy, daddy! Police car!’ and sure enough there’s the bus stop.”

The Columbus Division of Police say they’ve received 18 calls for service to the location since it opened on June 28.

Whitt said it’s also causing disruptions and danger for customers.

“They have to run across a busy street with five lanes of traffic. You can see semi trucks and cars going down this road at 45 miles an hour. They’re having to dodge that traffic because there is no crosswalk,” Whitt said. “This is where the food is, this is where the bathroom is, this is where the running water happens to be.”

Now, three weeks after opening, it has come out that the terminal is operating without a certificate of occupancy.

Anthony Celebrezze, with the Columbus Building and Zoning Department, said the owners submitted plans for the station in May.

They went through all the steps except completing their final inspection, which would give them that certificate.

NBC4 asked Celebrezze if the station was allowed to open.

“They were not allowed to open. You are not supposed to open until you have a certificate of occupancy,” Celebreeze said.

On Monday, the City of Columbus sent a letter to the owners, Baron Buses, saying make changes or cease operations.

“Now that we have all this new information . . . we’ve asked them to resubmit, by the end of this week, a new site plan and some new building plans,” Celebreeze said.

He said it needs to include proper bathrooms and security. From there, they will look at it with a new filter and make further determinations with that information.

“I understand the people that would like to see it closed,” Celebreeze said. “Our challenge is if they do meet all the criteria that we require of the type of use they are doing on it, then they are going to get to open anyhow. So, at this point, we are letting them go on [while] keeping an eye on what’s going on out there.”

The Building and Zoning Department has assigned a compliance officer specifically to this case.

Whitt said the city allowing the terminal to stay open while all this goes on is rewarding bad behavior.

“While I appreciate whatever it is they are trying to do, the fact is they are still letting this operate in the interim,” he said. “They are still letting people run across this road. They are not intending, as far as I know, to put a traffic cop here. They’re not intending to have any other additional resources devoted to the area. That’s messed up. Somebody is going to get hurt and I think at this point, with the city’s experience with the site, I think the city is responsible for that.”

Joe Motil is a mayoral candidate for the City of Columbus. He has also been very outspoken about this issue. He said he has a background in construction, so as soon as he saw the structure, he knew there would be issues.

“I asked a gentleman who had traveled from Montreal, and he said he had been to at least 10 greyhound bus stations. I told him this was brand new. ‘What do you think about it?’ He said, ‘It’s the worst one yet,’” Motil said.

Motil called it irresponsible for the city to allow this station to be open without a certificate of occupancy. He said the Greyhound buses deserve a place to operate. He believes a possible solution to this issue is to involve this bus system with the LinkUS transit plan.

“They are a national bus carrier service, and they are not part of the bigger plan that the city of Columbus is promoting,” Motil said. “This facility does not belong here.”

Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office has been a part of public meetings regarding the safety concerns at the bus terminal.

He said in a statement to NBC4:

“Public safety is our most pressing concern, which is why we required the operator to increase security. They have added safety staff and security cameras, and we’re working to increase police presence in the near-term. In the mid-and long-term, we’ve strongly encouraged the operator to seek a more appropriate, permanent location.”

NBC4 has reached out to Baron Buses for a comment and is still waiting on a response back.