Earlier this year, Crystal Car Wash at 901 S. Harlem Ave. was looking to expand for the second time in three years. But it seems like that’s not going to happen, for now.
According to Steve Glinke, head of the village’s building and planning department, Crystal Car Wash’s addition of vacuum stalls to the lot just north of it was the only agenda item for the May and June Planning and Zoning Commission meetings. But the PZC meetings were cancelled after Crystal Car Wash’s owner Neil Rembos withdrew his request for the meetings.
Crystal Car Wash did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Some residents in the area are concerned about traffic and increased noise if the expansion is approved.
Glinke said that the first cancelled PZC meeting was to give Crystal Car Wash more time to engage the neighborhood about the expansion — a suggestion, according to Glinke, brought up by the car wash’s lawyer.
The Review published a legal notice for a June 16 hearing for Crystal Car Wash’s addition of more vacuum stalls, but that hearing was also cancelled. And there were no PZC meetings in July or August.
Glinke said he hasn’t heard from Rembos about why he cancelled the PZC meetings earlier this summer and hasn’t requested to be on the agenda since.
This isn’t the first time Crystal Car Wash has sought to expand with more vacuum stalls.
Rembos bought Crystal Car Wash in 2017 and spent a year-and-a-half renovating it. Then in the summer of 2021, the car wash announced plans to spread to the lot just north of its current location. While the stipulations under which the vacuums could run was grandfathered in at the existing location, to expand across Lexington Street, the car wash required zoning relief from the PZC.
According to village code, businesses can’t disturb the peace with noise between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. Though Crystal Car Wash’s vacuums run until the business closes at 9 p.m., the code doesn’t apply to businesses that existed before such noise restrictions were created.
A car wash has existed at 901 S. Harlem Ave. for about 40 years, Glinke said. Before it was Crystal Car Wash, Premier Car Wash sat at that location. Had Premier moved out and the property had been vacant for over 180 days, its nonconforming use would’ve lapsed. But because Crystal Car Wash moved in before that time expired, it inherited Premier’s nonconforming use.
However, the lot across Lexington Street wasn’t grandfathered in. So, like this year, Rembos needed to apply for conditional approval to install more vacuums on the north lot, then have a public hearing with the PZC, whose recommendation the Village Council must ratify to approve more vacuums.
After a delayed hearing in May 2022 at the request of Crystal Car Wash’s attorney, in Oct. 2022, the agenda item came to the PZC. Rembos asked for a 14-stall self-serve automobile vacuum facility at 7201 Lexington St. — which Crystal Car Wash bought and demolished the vacant home on the property. The PZC delayed its vote because of concerns about traffic and noise.
At that PZC meeting and over the previous year, residents expressed their concerns about the vacuum noise. And they called for a traffic study, though the village didn’t require the car wash to complete one.
In response to residents, Rembos said he would install a noise-reducing fence, as high as village regulations would allow, on the Lexington Street property. He added that the new vacuums would have noise-reducing holsters and that he would look into modifications at the existing facility.
The following PZC meeting in Dec. 2022 didn’t have Crystal Car Wash on the agenda.
