For years, Elgin Avenue residents have aired complaints to the village and Crystal Car Wash about the latter’s noisy vacuum stations at 901 S. Harlem Ave. After the car wash, in May, tried to expand for the second time in three years, three residents who live behind the business got legal representation.
Now, Sukrat Baber, Mitchell Ashcroft and Markus Denny are suing Forest Park’s Village Administrator Rachell Entler and its Director of Public Health and Safety Steve Glinke. Baber, Ashcroft and Denny live on Elgin Avenue, just across an alley from the car wash.
Mayor Rory Hoskins and Crystal Car Wash’s owner did not respond to request for comment. Both Entler and Glinke declined to comment, due to the pending litigation.
The three Elgin Avenue residents’ lawsuit argues that the current car wash isn’t grandfathered into the village code because of the noise from the vacuum stations added to the south and west sides of the building. Additionally, the plaintiffs argue that Crystal Car Wash is detrimental to the public health, safety and comfort of the village.
According to village code, businesses can’t emit excessive noise between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. But Crystal Car Wash has 24 free stations with vacuums and compression hoses that run until the business closes at 9 p.m. and regularly exceed 80 decibels. Premier Car Wash previously existed at 901 S. Harlem Ave., and when Crystal Car Wash opened in 2018, it was grandfathered into the version of the code before noise restrictions were implemented.
According to the filed lawsuit, Premier Car Wash was a legal nonconforming use, and construction of new vacuum stations violates the village’s zoning ordinance that prohibits the expansion of nonconforming uses.
“One of the things that we would like is for the vacuum [stations] on the west side to be removed,” Baber previously told the Review.
Baber also previously told the Review that, for years, dozens of Forest Parkers have asked the village for help with the car wash, and have presented their issues directly to Crystal Car Wash, to no avail. After Baber, Ashcroft and Denny hired lawyers in the spring, and requested an interview with the Review, they said neither the village nor the car wash contacted them about ongoing concerns.