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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes <br />January 26, 2021 <br />Page 12 <br /> <br />Mr. Archambault indicted he did not know the exact details of the business because he was still 1 <br />trying to get a Conditional Use Permit for the business. What he hoped to do is to get cars in the 2 <br />door with the car down as people approach with an auto attendant where people will pay to get in 3 <br />and once they get in the door will open. The goal will not have a prep station, but he did hope to 4 <br />have an attendant there to help people get on the conveyor system. He wanted to give the best 5 <br />customer experience. He noted he does want to conserve energy so if there were a stream of cars 6 <br />in line, he would prefer not to have the door open and close after every vehicle. 7 <br /> 8 <br />Mayor Stille thanked everyone for their testimony. He closed community comment for Council 9 <br />deliberation. 10 <br /> 11 <br />Mayor Stille indicated this is not an easy topic because it affects a lot of people. The Council 12 <br />was asked if they would want to live next to a car wash which he indicated he would not, but he 13 <br />would not want to live next to a commercial property either that has a permitted use that a car 14 <br />wash could be there. He thought people get a chance to get accustomed to that. On the other 15 <br />hand, there is a business owner that bought the business in 2015 with the expectation of 16 <br />expansion, knowing that it was a permitted use to have a car wash there. His concern is that the 17 <br />City may end up in litigation if the Council denies this and if the City ends up in litigation, his 18 <br />even bigger consideration is the City may lose all of its bargaining power that the City has with 19 <br />this particular business owner with a CUP. Having said that, if this moves forward, he did not 20 <br />care for the transaction or situation as it exists right now and needs more teeth to the conditions 21 <br />with more conditions. He thought some were too loose and he was prepared to talk about that 22 <br />and manufacture those conditions at the meeting. 23 <br /> 24 <br />Mayor Stille stated one of the things he thought was how could a use like this fit into a 25 <br />neighborhood with such close proximity to residential. He struggled with that. He did research 26 <br />this and found a car wash in Wayzata that demonstrated a car wash can coexist with a residential 27 <br />neighborhood. There were luxury condominiums twenty-five feet from the car wash to the west. 28 <br />To the north of that there were townhomes with a fence forty-eight feet from the beginning of the 29 <br />facility with patios right beyond the fence. He talked to the owner of the car wash and the owner 30 <br />has not had a complaint in a long time. It led him to believe that this could co-exist. He wanted 31 <br />to do this right and he would be willing to table this in order to get it done right. 32 <br /> 33 <br />Councilmember Randle explained he did not go through all of the emails but did go through as 34 <br />many as he could. He also reached out to other individuals to see if there is any legal way to 35 <br />deny this and quite honestly the City does not have any legal standing to deny this. He stated 36 <br />litigation is a real concern for the City. He did not see how the City can actually deny this, but 37 <br />he was open to thoughts on how the City can help mitigate the concerns of the neighbors. 38 <br /> 39 <br />Councilmember Jenson felt there needs to be further study from an environmental standpoint 40 <br />dealing with noise and fumes. As it stands right now, he cannot vote to approve this. 41 <br /> 42 <br />Councilmember Walker stated in reference to Wayzata, in terms of demographics are the 43 <br />residents similar to what exists in St. Anthony. Would it follow also that the residents there fit in 44 <br />the same profile as the residents here in terms of age, health issues, etc. Mayor Stille explained 45 <br />he only talked to the owner of the business. 46 <br />12