KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo City Planning Commission has voted against making recommendations that the city rezone a property for the purposes of building a car wash, but it isn’t settled yet.
Previously, Drive and Shine Car Wash, which recently opened a location on W. Main St., was looking to develop an area at the corner of Stadium Drive and South Drake Road near the Asylum Lake Preserve.
However, the property in question fell under the Natural Features Protection (NFP) imposed by the City of Kalamazoo. The NFP is meant to protect the “natural features” within the city.
The company had previously purchased the land in late 2018.
The three proposals considered by officials concerned rezoning the property at 3401 and 4305 Stadium Drive to commercial use, removing the NFP overlay from the area, and rezoning 2231 S. Drake Road.
During a special meeting Tuesday night that lasted almost six hours, dozens of citizens spoke out in opposition of the development, the majority saying that it would pose a potential environmental risk to the area.
Drive and Shine President and CEO Haji Tehrani was also present at the meeting, saying that his business had done everything correctly within the city guidelines to build the second location.
“Not an inch of our property falls in what is considered Asylum Lake Preserve,” Tehrani said. “We’re not proposing to build on Asylum Lake Preserve, we’re proposing to build on the land that rightfully was designated for commercial [zoning] because everything around it is commercial.”
Tehrani also stated that proper infrastructure precautions would be in place to prevent any run-off from the car wash if it were built with respect to the Natural Features Protection.
Ultimately, after midnight, the City Planning Commission voted against all three proposals, but the fight isn’t over. While the Planning Commission can recommend that the project be rejected, the final decision is up to the City Commission. Some City Commissioners we talked to said they will also have to consider whether Tehrani could sue the city and win, so it may not be over yet.
The City Planning Commission said that in the future, the possibility of rezoning the property for a purpose that Kalamazoo citizens would be satisfied with may still be negotiable. Overall, the car wash was not considered to be an appropriate use of the property.
However, they still found the notion of an out-of-state investor looking to do business in Kalamazoo as “exciting.”
The case will now go to the Kalamazoo City Commission for final review and they will set a date for a public hearing, which could be another late night affair.
