- Whitewater Car Wash proposes a 4,375-square-foot automated car wash at 1731 Jones Circle, replacing a former Frisch’s Big Boy.
- Traffic impacts along KY-18 emerged as the central concern during planning commission hearings.
- The project heads to the full Boone County Planning Commission on Jan. 7, with final approval resting with Fiscal Court.
Whitewater Car Wash wants to expand its footprint in Northern Kentucky. To do so, it needs the backing of the Boone County Planning Commission.
Whitewater Car Wash has requested approval from the planning commission to demolish an empty restaurant building on a 1.4-acre site at 1731 Jones Circle in Burlington and replace it with a 4,375-square-foot car wash. As recently as 2024, the building was home to a Frisch’s Big Boy.
Discussions about the project will resume at a planning commission meeting on Jan. 7, during which the legislative body will decide whether to recommend approval or denial of the request.
Whitewater is a car wash franchise headquartered in Tomball, Texas, with a growing presence in the Greater Cincinnati area. There are currently five Whitewater Car Wash locations in southwestern Ohio. In Northern Kentucky, the company has been approved to open a location at 178 Mt. Zion Rd. in Florence.
Whitewater features automated conveyor-style washes, subscription-based and designed for quick service. Customers remain in their vehicles while the process is automated. Revenue primarily comes from monthly memberships rather than individual visits.
According to documents provided by the planning commission, the proposed car wash will feature a 126-foot-long wash tunnel, three pay stations and 21 free vacuum spaces. Although the site layout has only one entrance and exit, it includes a bypass lane that allows vehicles to skip the wash and access vacuums or exit if needed, similar to other approved car wash layouts in the area. Whitewash would operate from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
The planning commission hosted a public hearing for the project on Dec. 3, during which some residents expressed concerns about how the car wash could affect traffic in the area. Jones Circle is located just off KY-18, the main road linking Burlington to Florence and I-75. This road frequently faces congestion during the afternoon rush hour. In addition, the Burlington Kroger, which can generate high volumes of traffic, is located off KY-18 near the vacant Frisch’s.
During the hearing, Hebron resident Patrick Bailey voiced concerns about the prospective car wash’s possible impact on local traffic along the route.
“I’m sure you guys know they’re doing a ‘super street for (KY) 18 – once they do that, there’s only going to be three exits for Kroger, if you look at the plan four, if you go all the way down by UDF,” he said. “So once you choke that up, and they’re going down busier days, that’s going to stop traffic. That’s going to have a huge impact on that road.
Fast-forward to the planning commission’s zone change committee meeting on December 17, and traffic was once again the primary topic of discussion.
Reid Cooksey, project manager at Stonefield Engineering & Design, told the zone change committee that, based on his team’s experience, fast-food restaurants typically generate more traffic during peak times than car washes.
“Generally, what we see, the existing uses is an old Big Boy–a fast food user with longer hours of operation and more severe peak times during rush hour than what we generate,” he said. “Using IT data, a restaurant of that size, a fast food restaurant of that size, with a drive-thru, would generate more traffic.”
Commissioner Rick Lunnemann said he believed that a car wash doesn’t produce a disproportionate amount of traffic compared to the previous Frisch’s, which, at times, he said could be empty during peak hours.
“I’m familiar with car washes quite a bit because I’m a member of a car wash facility in the area, and there are times when it generates a lot of traffic, and there are times when I’ve gone in to get my car washed, and there’s no traffic,” he said. “Compare that to a fast casual sit-down type restaurant, like Frisch’s or another similar use, I can’t imagine that the trip generation for this use would exceed what a Frisch’s restaurant would at breakfast-peak, lunch-peak, and dinner-peak.”
Ultimately, the committee chose to proceed with the project and scheduled it for discussion before the full planning commission. If approved, the project will advance to the fiscal court, which has the final authority on all zoning matters in unincorporated Boone County.