City Plan Commission Approves Special Use Permit For Car Wash, Reviews Standards They Take Into Account When Considering Special Use Permits

The City Plan Commission met 06/08/2022. The one action item they took up was a request for a special use permit for a car wash located at 3200 E. Express Court which is next to Menards and right across the street from the future location of Club Car Wash.

When Club Car Wash was granted its special use permit, some residents had raised concerns to Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3), the alderperson for the district of the location in question, regarding what they felt was an excessive number of car washes in the area.

I had wondered if similar concerns would be raised at this meeting, but, although one member of the public attended the meeting, nobody made any public comments or voiced opposition to the car wash, and the special use permit was eventually approved unanimously.

Principal Planner Jessica Titel gave a brief overview of the plan to the commission. The car wash was going to be located on an approximately 1.8-acre lot and would consist of a car wash and a self-serve dog wash with vacuum stations on the outside. The access for the car wash would come from an existing driveway for Menards, and an easement for that shared access had been prepared.

The applicants had also applied for a certified survey map to split the subject parcel into two parcels. In the documents provided to the commission, city staff had shaded in the area where the car wash would be located.The splitting of the lot would be reviewed at a staff level. There was also a site plan currently under review to confirm that everything met zoning code requirements.

She finished up by saying staff had reviewed the special use permit against the standards and the zoning code and recommended approval of the special use permit.

As noted, nobody spoke during the public hearing associated with this special use permit, so after that was closed, the commission moved straight into discussing and voting on the permit.

Mayor Woodford mentioned that he had received some questions about the proximity of this car wash to other car washes in the area, so he thought it would be helpful if Principal Planner Titel could speak about the standards staff took into consideration when determining whether to recommend special use permits for approval or denial.

Principal Planner Titel responded that the city’s zoning code listed 8 standards that they looked at when reviewing special use permits. None of those standards included proximity to other similar land uses.

• The first they look at is the zoning code and whether the planned use fits with the zoning district. This particular property had a C-2 zoning which allowed for a car wash as a special use.
• The second thing they looked at was the zoned district’s regulations and whether it was compliant with zoning code regulations. They review that with site plan application which is done at the administrative level (so would not come before the commission or Common Council for a vote). Staff currently had the site plan and were reviewing parking, setbacks, landscaping, lot coverage, stormwater management, etc.
• The third thing they looked as was special regulations in the zoning code. Some special uses have special regulations that are applied to them and go above and beyond what would be required of for other uses. In this case, car washes did not have any special regulations so that was not an issue.
• The fourth thing they considered was whether it was consistent with the comprehensive plan. A car wash was consistent with the comprehensive plan which called for a commercial future land use on that site.
• The fifth thing they looked at was traffic. The City Traffic Engineer and staff had no concerns. The car wash was going to share an existing driveway with Menards so there would be no new curb cuts.
• The sixth standard was landscaping and screening which would be looked at during the site plan review.
• The seventh thing they considered was neighborhood compatibility. In this specific case, the car wash would be adjacent to other commercial properties and was next to well-travelled corridors. There was also a signalized intersection close by, so staff did not have any concerns regarding compatibility.
• The eighth and final thing they considered was the impact on city provided services. The city had existing services and utilities in the area, so they did not expect this new business to have a negative impact on that. She noted that the car wash’s plumbing would be reviewed with the building permit to ensure that they had adequate facilities.

Mayor Woodford thanked her for that answer and commented that he felt it was helpful to understand the purview of the City Plan Commission when reviewing special use permits. He thought this particular example was similar to having multiple drive-thru restaurants next to each other. and I think sort of an analogous example might be when you have maybe multiple drive thru restaurants next to each other.

Commissioner Ross Buetow (who is also the Deputy Director of Public Works) asked to confirm that the need for the special use permit was due to the car wash aspect of the business and not the dog wash station.

Principal Planner Titel confirmed that was correct.

Commissioner Buetow asked if there were any unique circumstances related to the dog wash or would that be handled through the normal site plan process?

Principal Planner Titel responded that she didn’t believe that the dog wash portion itself would require a special use permit and that, while it was part of the project, that aspect didn’t require anything specific.

There were no further comments or questions and the commission voted 6-0 to approve the special use permit.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=970914&GUID=F1DEE2C6-4DC3-47ED-A8FF-00011A72AEA5