NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — According to the Los Angeles Times, neighbors of a Newport Beach Shell gas station that wants to build a carwash have in part convinced the city Planning Commission that the addition would drop property values in the neighborhood, thwarting his attempt.
The Shell station’s owner, Fred Kim, said that he wants to compete with the Chevron station across the street that has a carwash, the article continued.
At the Planning Commission meeting on Sept. 13th, resident Lynda Bentall claimed that the gas station is already a nuisance to the neighbors and that the carwash is a “self-indulgent commercial issue that does not belong here.”
She added, “Once you have such a foolish, unnecessary addition to a community that’s going to cause property values to go down, I think the city and Pacific Rim may soon be facing situations where they’re going to be asked to compensate for the cost of the reduction in property value.”
The proposed carwash in question would be an automated tunnel that would take one vehicle at a time and not switch on until two translucent doors closed, the article noted; it would also have an exterior coin-operated vacuum.
A sound engineer, who had prepared a noise analysis based on a nearly identical carwash at a gas station in San Diego, claimed the noise levels would adhere to city limits, but some neighbors claimed the corner and the gas station were noisy enough, the article stated.
Resident Mark Coleman took offense to the idea that the city should allow the carwash based on the idea that it wants to compete with the Chevron, the article added.
“I’d love for Newport Beach to take a look at my business and say, ‘We should help Mr. Coleman because that’s an underperforming business compared to his competitor down the street.’ I think that’s BS,” Coleman said. “This is an accumulation of noise. Is there going to next be a hot dog stand on some tiny little sliver of that site? At what point do you say enough is enough, we don’t need it?”
The commission reached a stalemate on two 3-3 votes: one on denying the carwash and one on allowing it with some restrictions, the article reported.
The commission agreed to continue the item until its meeting on Nov. 8th and let Kim revise the proposal, the article concluded.
Read the original article here.
