ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥

photo by: Eric Ayres

Wheeling Vice Mayor Jerry Sklavounakis, who represents Ward 4, tells the Wheeling Planning Commission Monday that a proposed car wash would not be an appropriate addition to the residential Clator neighborhood in his ward.

WHEELING — Plans for construction of a new car wash in the Clator neighborhood of Wheeling received no support from members of the Wheeling Planning Commission on Monday night, when several residents of the neighborhood spoke out against the plan during a public hearing.

Representatives of Wash-Rite Express Car Wash requested a zone change for three properties on Diamond Avenue from R-1C Single Family, Medium Density Residential to C-2 General Commercial to allow development of the proposed car wash. The properties at 1, 3 and 5 Diamond Ave. are located between El Zocalo Mexican Restaurant and Figaretti’s Restaurant, both of which sit on a very busy part of Mount de Chantal Road/Wheeling Hospital Road near the Washington Avenue intersection and the on ramps and off ramps to Interstate 70.

Wash-Rite car washes provide a 3-minute drive-through tunnel for automated car washes with free vacuum access outside, complimentary towels and air fresheners, and membership availability.

“I think we have a good chance here,” said Andrew Crum of Wash-Rite, noting that the ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ operates several car washes in the region, including locations in Moundsville, Weirton, Wintersville, two in Parkersburg, Marietta and Athens, Ohio, and others.

Crum said the car washes are automated, but there are employees who work at the locations. Appearance is emphasized with the ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥, as employees wear uniforms with bow ties. The ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ would create jobs, with about 12-15 employees planned for the Wheeling location.

Following a public hearing on the zone change request, though, members of the Wheeling Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend against the zone change. The recommendation will be forwarded to Wheeling City Council for final consideration.

Residents of the neighborhood and city leaders spoke out against bringing a ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ to this area, not only because of the potential disruption to the residential area but also because of the volume of traffic in this area that is already one of the highest in the city.

“I live in Clator,” said Susanna Wayt, who during the public hearing outlined the history of the residential neighborhood. “From 1910 on, there’s still been only one road in and out — Mount de Chantal Road.”

In the early to mid-1900s, the residential character of the neighborhood slowly changed. A grocery store came to the area — which today is the site of a dental office. Then a restaurant came — which today is Figaretti’s. In 1972, Wheeling Hospital arrived, with no additional access to or from the busy hospital on the eastern side.

“One road, in and out — Mount de Chantal. Everybody has to go on Mount de Chantal Road to get in and out of the neighborhood,” Wayt said. “Then we added another restaurant, we added numerous doctors’ offices, we added another dental office, we added a hearing ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥, two apartment buildings …”

More non-residential structures came, and in 1993, the Howard Long Wellness Center opened.

“The Wheeling Zoning Commission has approved changing these residentially zoned properties to commercial time after time after time, and as a resident of the neighborhood, I’m asking you to stop,” Wayt told the Planning Commission members. “If you live in the neighborhood, you know how difficult it can be to get in and out during certain times of the day.”

Residents noted that Wheeling Hospital is now the only hospital in the city, and ambulances are constantly bringing patients to the emergency room from all over the Ohio Valley. During shift changes, Mount de Chantal Road gets saturated with traffic, residents noted.

Some residents expressed concerns about the value of their homes depreciating if the zone change were to be approved and if a car wash were to open there. There are already traffic accidents there, they said.

“I bought my home because I wanted to be part of a neighborhood,” Jake Linaweaver of Diamond Avenue said. “I’ve put tens of thousands of dollars of upgrades into my home, because I wanted to stay there.”

Homes previously on those lots along Diamond Avenue where the proposed car wash was planned were suddenly demolished, Linaweaver said, noting that most people in the neighborhood had no idea what was going to happen there. Officials from Wash-Rite noted after Monday’s meeting that they did not own the property.

“I’m all for progress, but not at this cost,” Linaweaver said.

Wheeling Vice Mayor Jerry Sklavounakis, Ward 4 councilman, also attended the meeting and spoke out against the proposal.

“This is my ward,” Sklavounakis said. “I appreciate the fact that these gentlemen want to bring in a new ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ to this area. Those car washes I think have been assets. I’ve used them before, they are not a bad ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ model. Unfortunately, I agree with the residents that that location is not appropriate. It’s just a bad intersection.”

B.J. Delbert, Wheeling’s director of Building and Planning, said five other residents not in attendance Monday directly expressed opposition to the zone change proposal to her, as did three additional opponents who forwarded emails to her office.

Aside from representatives from Wash-Rite, no one spoke in favor of the zone change during the public hearing.

“I love the concept of your car washes, and I don’t want to come across that I don’t,” said Wheeling City Councilman Ben Seidler, member of the Planning Commission. “I would love to have you in the city of Wheeling. If you guys would like to look at another location, we would be happy to put that on a silver platter for you, take you around and show you multiple other places where this would fit well within our city. There’s just no way that Mount de Chantal Road would support more traffic. For that reason, I just cannot support this. But if we can work with you on anywhere else in the city, we’ll be all over that to help you guys.”

Planning Commission member Howard Monroe added that if the property is rezoned to Commercial, it will remain that way. Even if the proposed car wash were to open there and then close, different commercial uses could operate on those properties in the neighborhood in the future if it were to be rezoned.

The city staff recommendation on the zone change request was to have the matter forwarded to a zoning subcommittee for future discussion and recommendation, and also to have the applicant perform a traffic study in the area. However, members of the commission said they felt that was not necessary regardless of what a traffic study may or may not say, and they moved to vote on the proposal Monday night — unanimously voting against a recommendation for the zone change.