ORANGE PARK, Fla. — According to www.claytodayonline.com, the Orange Park Town Council voted on Aug. 6th to change carwash zoning to conditional use in commercial general districts.
Residents had expressed concern about having more than one carwash in town (there are now two), since Orange Park is less than four square miles, and some were pushing for a ban, the article continued.
Town Attorney Sam Garrison said, “If the primary reason behind the concern is, ‘Okay, we’ve surveyed the town and we have more carwashes than we know what to do with,’ to the point where we think it’s becoming a net negative versus a net positive for the community, that’s why you make that a conditional use. That’s because one of the factors of conditional use is the service available already in the community. That’s one of the statutory factors that has to be looked at in order to grant conditional use.”
Garrison warned against a ban, since there could come a day when the town had no carwashes and the council would have to amend regulations once again, the article noted.
A conditional use classification allows the council to consider building requests on a case-by-case basis, the article added.
Barbara Davidson asked why the council had considered carwashes for conditional use, the article continued; she noted at the June 14th meeting last year that Orange Park was at risk of becoming a “carwash city.”
“We will end up with four car washes,” Davidson said. “In December of last year, I said why don’t we have a moratorium like we did with service stations? It’s obvious you’re closing the barn door after the horse is out, and nobody can be blamed for it except those of you who didn’t listen and recognize this problem.”
Read the original article here.
