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