Fresno car wash plan killed over concerns the noise might affect residents with autism
Concerns over how youths and adults at a nearby center for special-needs clients might react to noise and traffic from a proposed car wash prompted Fresno City Council members to reject the developer’s plans.
Several dozen clients and staff from the Rivendell Adult Community Center at McKinley and Fine avenues, in east-central Fresno near Fresno Yosemite International Airport, showed up at Thursday’s council meeting to protest against the automated drive-through car wash proposed by property owner Mohamad Assad.
Xiamy Ly-Yang, CEO of Rivendell Community Inc., was joined by a cadre of clients from the center who have autism and other developmental disabilities, along with parents and staff. The proposal included blower dryers at the end of the enclosed wash tunnel, as well as a series of stalls where customers could vacuum dirt and debris from inside their cars.
“I strongly believe that a car wash is not the best fit for our neighborhood and the businesses that are currently operating there,” Ly-Yang wrote in a letter to the city contesting the project approval. “A car wash will bring a lot of noises and ruckus, from their large machines and noisy vacuum to music from their customers’ cars.”
Ly-Yang told The Fresno Bee that Rivendell has about 120 clients, with about 50 at the site on any given day.
She was joined Thursday by parents and staff from the center who said loud noises and additional traffic could trigger significant anxiety for students who are often sensitive to over-stimulation and uncontrollable outbursts, including possibly darting outside and potentially into traffic in the driveway, parking lot or adjacent streets.
Assad’s attorney, Brady McGuinness, noted that car washes are a use that is allowed “by right” under the city’s light-industrial zoning which includes the 0.7-acre site at the northwest corner of the intersection.
“If developed properly and developed right, these are a nice supportive use for these (zoning) districts, especially with office use nearby, …” McGuinness told the council. “The intensity if it is not something that is going to impose circumstances where there are going to be significant effects.”
Additionally, he added, “There has to be a finding that the project presents unusual circumstances, and not some subjective belief that this could potentially cause these problems.”
The car wash was approved by city Planning Director Jennifer Clark in December, but it was appealed to the Fresno Planning Commission by City Council President Tyler Maxwell, whose east-central Fresno district includes the project site.
Following a pair of public hearings in March and May, planning commissioners denied Maxwell’s appeal and approved the project, setting the stage for Maxwell to request an appeal to the full City Council.
The city planning staff’s recommendation was for the City Council to deny the appeal and allow the project development to move forward.
Several council members acknowledged that the city’s codes allow certain uses including car washes in the light-industrial zone without substantial environmental review in most instances.
“Our zoning outlines by-right development, but by-right development and the city municipal code also call for us to look at the local (context) in which that … development is being proposed,” Councilmember Miguel Arias said. “And in this case, the residents of Fresno with special needs – autism, health conditions – that are highly sensitive to noise, who were there first, need to be considered for the significant impact that it would create for them.”
“It’s going to be far more difficult to find a quiet neighborhood for such as population with so many needs than to find a new location for somebody to wash their car,” Arias added.
Maxwell, who brought the appeal to the council, said that after listening to the arguments and reading the materials presented by the city’s planning staff, he felt the car wash “is expected to be injurious to the property immediately adjacent to the proposed project, and as such could adversely affect the surrounding area.”
In making the motion to deny the permit application, Maxwell said the project does not comply with portions of city codes that “require a project to not be injurious to the surrounding area.”
Council members voted 6-0 to reject the car wash proposal, with Counclimember Luis Chavez absent.
Orlando Ramirez, a development consultant for Assad, said after the meeting that the project team “has to regroup” to figure out what to do with the property. He said he believed the developer had tried to allay the concerns of neighbors, but were consistently told “no” to any plan that included a car wash. “This has been nothing but an uphill battle,” Ramirez said.
McGuinness, Assad’s attorney, added that he was surprised by the council’s action. But he declined to say what actions might follow as a result of the vote.
The Rivendell center has been in existence since 2005, and relocated to the site at McKinley and Fine avenues in 2018, Ly-Yang said.
Ly-Yang was happy with the vote, and said there could be other uses for the site that would be less disruptive to her clients. The staff often take some of the higher-functioning clients from the center on walks in the neighborhood, including to nearby fast-food restaurants on busy McKinley Avenue.
“We were proposing maybe a shop, a sandwich shop,” she said. “I told them that me and my staff and clients would actually go there and be patrons. That would be more compatible, more friendly.”
“Anything else that’s friendly, I’ll be the first one to support,” she added.
This story was originally published August 24, 2023 at 7:45 PM.
