A car wash operator Tuesday night won a long uphill battle to develop a vacant Torrance Blvd. lot whose faded “Car Wash” sign bespeaks a once-functioning car wash that operated from 1965 to 2002.
In recent years, the property at 617 Torrance Blvd. has failed inspection time and time again. Its previous owner, Charles Diamond, was even arrested for failing to whip the grounds into shape.
The abandoned lot has been a thorn in the City Council’s side for a decade. But Tuesday night, the council voted 4-1 to approve a proposed full-service car wash project, much to the chagrin of some residents who are concerned about the noise, pollution, traffic, and parking problems its construction might engender.
“We know people are upset and not everybody gets their way,” Mayor Steve Aspel said Tuesday after nearly six hours of public discussion.
“The neighborhood is not going to welcome you with open arms, you know that,” he said to the business owners. “So do what you can to mitigate anything, any noise and traffic.”
“You can’t make everybody happy… doesn’t matter what use it is, people aren’t gonna like it,” former councilmember Chris Cagle, speaking in support of the project, told the council Tuesday night.
In January, the Planning Commission denied the same group’s proposal to build an automatic car wash at the abandoned site, following neighbors’ complaints about the noisy machinery the operation would employ.
In April the business owners went back to the commission with another plan to build a full-service car wash – a quieter operation that relies on human labor. This time, their project – Redondo Auto Spa, a full-service operation with a coffee shop attached – won approval.
Neighbors then appealed the commission’s decision, and at Tuesday night’s meeting they gave testimony as to why.
“I’ve never seen [such] a showing from both sides… and I’ve been watching this stuff for about 10 years,” councilmember Bill Brand said of Tuesday night’s turnout.
The developers believe the car wash will be able to handle 400 cars per day without adversely affecting any nearby properties, though they foresee lesser numbers of daily customers actually using the service. Business owner Chris McKenna spoke Tuesday night about the eco-friendly nature of the operation, which he said will represent a “dramatic environmental improvement over conventional car washes.”
“It eliminates the huge threat to water quality posed by individuals washing cars in driveways,” he said.
All chemicals used at the car wash will be biodegradable, and verifiably non-hazardous as per Occupational Health and Safety Administration standards.
“The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] would tell you not only to build a car wash such as the Auto Spa; the EPA would actually like to request that everyone in the city actually use it,” McKenna said.
An exhaustive report prepared by city staff (and available on the city’s website) details the results of traffic studies, ambient noise level measurements, odor tests, and environmental impact assessments.
But neighbors believe the reports don’t tell the whole story.
“No matter what the car wash developers say, this will be an illegal car wash,” Mark Kleiman said Tuesday.
“We will have no relief from this noise – Saturday, Sunday, breakfast, dinner, there will be no relief,” Robert Forsell added.
Liz Walters said the traffic studies fall short; Julia Olson said the noise pollution “will affect our neighborhood every morning and every evening of every winter, spring, summer, and fall.”
“Good project, wrong place, absolutely,” said Evro Wee Sit. “They wanna do an environmental car wash; let them find a location where there will be no adverse impact on existing properties.”
People who support the project also spoke Tuesday.
Gentil Smith called the business “sound for the city” and Trinity Singer said it’s based on a “good business plan” created by people who “care about the citizens of Redondo Beach.”
Sean Guthrie urged the council to “move on and get this thing approved.”
Toward the end of the meeting, councilmember Matt Kilroy moved to deny the appeal on the following conditions: that the car wash will not be an express car wash; that it will close at 4 p.m. on Sundays; and that the site will not accommodate any self-service vacuum stations or credit card kiosks. All councilmembers approved the motion, save Brand.
“There’s been a lot of talk of NIMBYism, that somehow there’s been a select group of people here [opposing the project],” Brand said, using the acronym for Not In My Backyard. “…But this is why we have a Conditional Use Permit, because we do have to take into account what the impacts to the neighboring residents are.”
The car wash is expected to be operational by spring of next year.
