Site Planning Best Practices For Car Wash Businesses
What the county recorded
Staff recommendation
Presentation Only
DispositionApproved
Approved to waive the cost of the $3,000.00 in fees to be paid for out of the tree mitigation fund for the Leisure Beach Civic Association.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 19, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 19, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
This case, across meetings
PDD-23-0604 in full →Heard once. PDD-23-0604 appears on no other agenda in the archive.
- Sep 19, 2023BoardR70▶Approvedthis item
What was said
Machine transcription of 15m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 90% of 68 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
we've got R seventy? Site planning best practices for car wash businesses.
Yay.
Long
time coming.
Good afternoon, Commissioner. For the record, Chris Demonch of Planning and Development. Uh this request is really twofold today. We're going to present some ideas to you related to car wash businesses, and then we're also going to request direction from the board on how to proceed forward. And as you all know, uh back on June 20th, the board uh expressed concerns during discussion over the proliferation of car wash uh businesses here in Pasco County. Uh in
recent weeks we've had the opportunity to meet with each of you to talk about some of these ideas. And so we're back here to present them and get that direction from you all. Let's jump into the presentation here. So with regard to this um We are proposing to create some corridor-specific design standards for car washes that will provide the following. We're looking at
proximity requirements to ensure employment generating major transportation corridor frontages. We believe that section 1105 of the Land Development Code provides some guidance for us. Going forward with car washes. We could look at creating a new section that is modeled off of Section 1105. Section 1105 is specifically self-stored facility design standards, but aside from the design standards, uh we have some uh regulations that deal specifically
with those uses along these along certain corridors, the North 41. one slash east 52 corridor, the redevelopment corridor, and the transit corridor. So we believe that we could model some of what we'd like to do to address concerns over car washes with that. We also the second item was limits on the number of such uses within an area. So we could look at minimum distance requirements. It's certainly something we could look into and research and
come back to you with some ideas. And uh third item is to provide design and development guidelines for parking, stacking, and vacuuming. This kind of goes back to building placement, how the buildings look uh to uh folks either walking or driving along roadways, landscape buffering, uh controlling parking, stacking, and vacuuming. A big concern is is the how the vacuum areas of these businesses are are Easily viewed from the right-of-way. They're not really shielded. And
so you get a similar design where you have a building that's perpendicular to the roadway and On one side you have the building which the cars go through to get cleaned and then you've got a whole l lane of of vacuums. So uh we're looking to hopefully address that as well. This is an example of uh 11 section 1105. We have our map which outlines uh the three corridors there. In green we have the North 41, East 52 corridor. Uh in orange we have the redevelopment corridor, and in
purple we have the transit corridor. So we wanted to show you that. We have three aerials here. This kind of gives you a flavor of how close in proximity many of these car washes are. Uh the yellow stars there represent the full service car washes. Uh the red star represents a gas station which has a car wash uh on site there. Um and this is along State Road 54 and Wesley Chapel Boulevard as you're driving east. along 54
coming up to Wesley Chapel Boulevard, you're gonna pass or see uh four different opportunities for car washes. Our next aerial is uh if you're driving west on State Road 54 and you come up to that uh up coming up towards Trinity Boulevard, there's there's three car washes there. In yellow are the full service, the Jallow car wash, and the Take Five car wash, and then of course we have an AMICO gas station, which also has an on-site car wash too.
You're missing the car wash at Dunhide.
Next we have a little road and if you're heading south that you come to Trouble Creek. And what's unique about this aerial is not only do we have three car washes, but we have three different car washes uh in how there the offerings there. The River Crossing Autospar, it's one of those ones where you drive in, get out of your vehicle, scrub your vehicle down, spray it with a high powered hose and And then you drive off. Um the aerial doesn't show the Circle K, but there is a Circle K gas station there now with
an on-site car wash. And then lastly we have the tidal wave autospa uh car wash. That's your typical full service car wash like you're seeing around the county.
Now, as uh Commissioner Starkey had mentioned, we do have the take five car wash there on 54 just west of the parkway. Uh we wanted to show you this. This is standard, this is what you're seeing in this particular picture. Uh the car wash itself runs perpendicular to 54, and then of course you have the entire row of car washes. Of course, we'd like to work on some design standards and ways to work and make these uh a little more aesthetically pleasing. My last slide is an example out of Hillsborough County, and this
is a Jallow car wash that's being constructed presently at the corner of Ehrlich Road and Basswood Avenue. What's unique about this is that in the Citrus Park area, they allow for the buildings to be brought up closer to the roadway. But if you're driving down Ehrlich Road, you're not necessarily going to easily see the vacuums that are located behind. behind that car wash structure. Additionally, as you enter the car wash and exit it, they've added in some some um architectural features. In this case they're gonna
have pergolas at the entrance and exit points of that car wash. And of course By adding in some additional landscaping, they're really gonna shield a lot of the the activity that you would see on the site, whether it's stacking of vehicles waiting to to enter the car wash or the vehicles that are are getting vacuumed and cleaned. Um
That concludes my presentation, but I'm happy to uh answer any questions you might have. And really we just want to get direction so we can come back to you with some more uh definitive options and some ideas for uh addressing this concern which has been on the the board's minds for a while now.
Yeah. Commissioner Weightman.
Thank you. Well first I thank Chair Mariano for Egging me on at the end time of one of our last meetings. So I appreciate the work you and Terry have put into this. It's really been an interesting conversation and there's a part two to this that'll come on a later later meeting. Um But yeah, I mean your s your snapshot You could have dozens of snapshots of Of examples. I mean
forty one on fifty two and you're heading west Yeah. gas station approaching the veterans. There's a new one on the other side of the veterans next to the farm. Uh well
before you get to Haze and you pass Hayes, there's another one going in it. Uh fifty two and Um
Brain's getting tired on me. Nope. Moon Lake going in, Mr. Bubbles saw it again this morning, Big Side and you keep on going. I mean they're just th they're they're everywhere. So we talk about when we talk about frequency.
Where these these things are going so Um I'm thinking that might be the solution. I don't know.
Uh
The fact that they're car washes, I just think the it the frequency of them and where they're at and they're taking up our prime job creating sites. And where we could have something you know, a lot more beneficial. uh to our residents, to our county, to our taxpays, something that creates a b a a better job versus just people spending money and who knows who knows where it's going. So I appreciate y'all taking the time uh taking on this exciting subject matter of all the subject matters that we tackle. Um and
so anyway, I'll just leave it for commentary. Commissioner Starkey.
Well I I have always thought that the sighting of um buildings is very important and that's one of the reasons why when they asked me on school board I'd like I don't know anything about teaching. But I said, Oh, I'll I'll go on that side of things So I I'm very glad we're addressing this and I look forward to addressing all the siding uh buildings on pads. Um and I I fine with going forward and and doing what we can to make make these look
as appealing as possible since we can't outlaw them. I mean I I hear it every day. You heard someone today say Oh my goodness, another car wash. We we don't approve What goes in? We just approved what can. what the possible range is and the market dictates it. I don't understand this market for the life of me. Uh there's no way these are all gonna survive. But Um I will say Tommy's out there on nineteen. If you don't get another one I'm gonna switch. There
is only one Tommy's car car wash in the county and it's over there by Gulf Harbors. But it would be nice to have one other one. But I and so I guess that's how they're surviving 'cause careful what you wish for. I just want one. I just want one other one. But I mean Jallo Jallo's coming in on every corner. Um so anyway, uh yeah I say I say fix it. Please quickly.
Yeah, I just I appreciate the work y'all are doing on this. Uh I've heard from a lot of people, including you guys. about how many car washes we see and go down the road and it seems like a new one's coming up every time you turn around. And um And Uh that would not be happening if people weren't asking for car washes. So I mean that demand is there. And so if we can lead that to like we did storage units to the back side and rather than the front. Uh that'll be fine
as long as we don't see 'em. And use that front for employment. Generated property. So
yeah. And I I say that's actually a good point because with so many they're out there right now.
Yeah.
Uh now's probably a good time to move them to the back because there's there's just so many of them out there. I think the frequency and I was very happy to hear Terry talk about it last time. that the frequency of these coming in, maybe it's every mile or so a apart from each other or two miles, whatever the number may be. but I think it's also something else else to go after. I like the idea of the change in the look of them. uh so they look better as well. So those two things, how quick and what we need to do to like start implementing those steps.
Yeah. Well Well we're Well we can jump on this as soon as you're ready for us to do so. I mean we can I think that's
Oh that's how fast we can bring it back. Well, I guess Well uh Terry Pito's Planning and Development Director. Um We're gonna jump on a as soon as we get direction from the Board of County Commissioners to begin drafting land development code amendments. Um tentative project timeline include probably included initial drafts within a month and a month to two months from now. So uh probably visiting commissioners and speaking about a potential draft by December ish.
That'd be great. I mean I think you've got pretty good direction between the location, the frequency and the look of how how they are as well. Um and I think those those three things are not a good thing.
Can can we not accept any uh until You know. Can we use the moratorium word on uh until you have the new D restrictions in place? Or does that require
if you wish to adopt an ordinance, you can create a moratorium.
This is an ord Is this an
ordinance?
No.
To do a moratorium you have to adopt an ordinance. Okay. And that We we can whip one of those up too. Okay.
I just would you know for that wish wish we could hold off on approving I guess you can gently Offer a suggestion that they do. Our new design is coming.
Well we will be providing uh any applicants or or prospective applicants with information.
There's this discussion that's happened at the Board of County Commissioners. So that they are made aware. Okay.
But these are coming in in Euclidean zoning categories, which is site plan approval only pretty much and So we can't do it anyway? Well You can't If they present a site plan, the planning department has to Move it forward. We can ask pretty pleased.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Well let's get rolling on it quick then. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that works about as good as Boo in the enforcement realm, but go ahead.
Thank you gentlemen for uh already being moving on this as we've heard heard it many times. I'm glad you've you've heard it too.
So I I'm curious, why didn't you bring the other one with it? Why are we only doing the car washes now? Why aren't we just doing the other siding, fast food? I felt
that uh today was gonna be a long day. In fact, we have a budget hearing.
We have ten more minutes. Can we go ahead and just have you guys been briefed on the others, plop and drops?
Well there's storage facilities and the plop and drop. I've re I've received they've had a
I'm good to go with the plop and drops as well. I d I don't want you to
There's a little more of a comprehensive planation on that. Again, we just didn't want to wear you out. That was really what the
I wouldn't mind
hearing it real
quick.
I wouldn't mind hearing about it because I'm not sure what you're talking about.
I've got a meeting after facilities. Drive-through facilities associated with like fast food establishments and financial institutions. Um we can we were planning to bring back a separate presentation on October the tenth.
I okay, I won't I won't be here, but I am in support of it.
I'll sit in there.
So notice for you. I'll handle it now. I'll be here for you. Same thing, we'd be looking for direction. It'd be a discussion item, so
Okay, so All set with these gentlemen. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Thank you.