photo by: Eric Ayres

Attorney Bill Wilmoth, left, and Roger Beck, president of the parent company of Wash-Rite Express Car Wash, appear before the Wheeling Planning Commission during a special meeting on Monday night.

WHEELING — After going through the cycle several times over the past year, officials from the Rite-Wash Express Car Wash were granted preliminary site plan approval to build a new location on Mount de Chantal Road in Wheeling.

Members of the Wheeling Planning Commission gathered for a special meeting Monday scheduled specifically to allow officials from Wash-Rite to present information that was requested earlier this month. The data included a more detailed traffic study of the area of the proposed car wash near the busy intersection of Washington Avenue and Interstate 70.

Tempers flared during the last meeting after a 3-3 vote by the planning commission led to a dead motion to approve a preliminary site plan for what has been reported to be a $5 million development.

Members of the planning commission since last year have expressed concerns about the amount of traffic that already snarls this area of the city — especially during certain times of the day, such as shift change at the hospital. The area is situated near the only access road to and from WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, the Howard Long Wellness Center and other destinations near the Clator neighborhood.

Georgia-based businessman Roger Beck, owner of the Wash-Rite Express Car Wash’s parent company, last month vowed to bring an attorney to the next hearing before the planning commission. He kept that promise on Monday night, when local attorney Bill Wilmoth of Steptoe & Johnson spoke on behalf of the company.

The tone of Monday night’s session was much more subdued, as some planning commission members participating in the special session agreed that there was no legal stance to deny a preliminary site plan approval. The narrow strip of land for the proposed development is situated to the west of the Washington Avenue intersection between Mount de Chantal Road and Heritage Trail.

The “more complete” traffic study was 103 pages long, officials noted. Beck apologized that the full traffic report was not provided to the planning commission before the previous meeting earlier this month.

According to the traffic study, the addition of the car wash will not have a significant impact on the local traffic flow at this site. City staff has continued to recommend preliminary site plan approval, and officials from Wheeling’s Water Pollution Control Division have expressed no concerns with the company’s plan for water management at the proposed site. The site is already properly zoned C-2 for commercial use.

Wheeling City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth described the national firm that completed the traffic study as the country’s recognized authority on transportation studies.

“It’s the gold standard in regard to these types of documents and manuals, and it’s universally accepted throughout the United States,” Humway-Warmuth said. “The city has no reason to believe that these numbers are not accurate.”

Wash-Rite officials last year had proposed to build a new car wash at another nearby site in Clator that had been zoned for residential use. That prompted a zone-change hearing where residents of the area spoke out against adding any more commercial traffic to the already busy area. The zone change request was denied, and Wash-Rite representatives have since found nearby property that is already properly zoned for commercial use.

“This isn’t a zoning matter,” the company’s attorney said. “This hearing is just asking for preliminary approval so we can move forward with the project. I also sent the city solicitor a letter from Roger Beck, who is the president of the car wash company, confirming that if there is a traffic problem on Mount de Chantal Road, that we will hire an off-duty Wheeling police officer or county deputy to help us with that.”

Wheeling Councilman Ben Seidler, a member of the planning commission, participated in Monday’s special meeting via phone. He noted that if this was a hearing for a zone-change request, residents of Clator and Morningside neighborhoods would have had an opportunity to speak.

“If this was a zoning discussion, the emotions in the room from the people in the neighborhood would be relevant,” Seidler said. “But this is not about the zoning. The zoning is in place. We’re talking about a commercial spot that’s already zoned commercial.”

Seidler noted that unless cars actually start “queuing up out onto the road, I don’t think we have any other justification otherwise than to move forward with this.

“Take the emotions out of the equation. I can’t see any reason why we would not be obligated to approve this at this point.”

Commissioner Howard Monroe agreed. He did note, however, that it was announced this week that Washington Avenue just south its intersection with National Road would be closed this fall for an entire year, and that will likely send more hospital traffic onto Mount de Chantal Road. Officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways on Monday stated that the start date on the bridge replacement is expected to be Nov. 15 – not October as previously indicated. The bridge will be closed for one year, state officials said.

“I’m not a traffic expert, but I have been doing this an awfully long time with a whole lot of car washes,” Beck said. “We’re going to take traffic that’s currently there off of that street. The reason we want to be there is because that intersection is busy. We’re not going to impact that intersection — I can handle anything that’s going to come in front of us. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be trying to build there.”

Planning Commission member William Schwarz, who presided over the meeting in Chairman Jeremy West’s absence, was the only member of the commission to vote against the preliminary site plan approval for the car wash on Monday night. Fellow member Christina Schessler was not in attendance.

Schwarz initially intended to abstain from the vote after Monroe, Seidler and commissioners Bill Lanham, Michael Baum and Tom Connor voted in favor of the preliminary site plan.

Wheeling Building and Planning Director Brenda J. Delbert noted, however, that there needed to be a reason for an abstention.

“Due to my knowing people in that neighborhood over there, I don’t think I can be impartial,” Schwarz said.

“I don’t believe that’s a valid abstention,” the city solicitor noted.

“Then I’ll vote no,” Schwarz said.

Schwarz had expressed concerns about the car count numbers provided in the traffic study, indicating that actual car counts at that site would be more telling than numbers generated by data from “national standards” applied to local conditions at that site. He also noted that figures reluctantly provided by Wash-Rite officials for actual car counts at their other regional locations paint a different picture regarding potential traffic impacts.

Now that preliminary site plan approval has been granted, the company is expected to continue investing in engineering and building plans for the new car wash. For final site plan approval, staff is recommending clarity on a rear setback, a lighting plan, a signage plan and a landscape plan to include buffering along Heritage Trail.

In the event that all approvals are granted, Beck noted that it typically takes around four months to build a new car wash and get it operational.

“We’re generally 120 days from building permit to opening,” he said.