Local car wash owner Nathan Atkinson is interested in locating his third car wash business in Independence.
Atkinson’s location of interest would require a zone change from residential to neighborhood commercial at 3901 Turkeyfoot Road, which sits at the corner of Turkeyfoot and Industrial Roads in Independence.
He approached the Independence City Council with the idea at a meeting on July 7; however, it was merely to gauge the council’s interest in rezoning, as the project would need to be reviewed by the Planning and Development Services of Kenton County for a recommendation before coming to the council.
“Before I go spending 1000s of dollars, I just kind of wanted to know if you guys would be in favor of that property being commercial,” Atkinson said.
According to the Better Business Bureau, Atkinson owns the Blue Roo Car Wash, located at 7010 Alexandria Pike in Alexandria. The Blue Roo Car Wash website shows a second car wash location at 5266 Delhi Pike in Cincinnati. Blue Roo is an express exterior car wash service.
Atkinson received approval for a zone text amendment in Alexandria for Blue Roo Car Wash in 2020.
The process he must go through in Kenton County involves applying to the Kenton County Planning and Development Services for the zone change. A public hearing would be held by the planning commission, where they would make a recommendation that is passed to the city council, which has the final decision.
Independence City Administrator Chris Moriconi said the lot didn’t make sense to be zoned residential.
“I didn’t necessarily say it was a good car wash lot, I just said it really doesn’t make any sense that it’s a residential lot,” Moriconi said. “Who would build a house there?”
When rezoning, a municipality must consider all possible uses that could be included in the rezoning. For instance, the neighborhood commercial zone allows establishments such as liquor stores, gas stations and drive-through restaurants. Even though Atkinson is proposing a car wash, that doesn’t mean that down the road, a different permitted use could be established in that location.
“He can say that he’s doing ‘X, Y, and Z,’ but once you change that zone to neighborhood commercial, anything that’s a permitted use within that neighborhood commercial zone, unless we did something unique, is going to be permitted use, regardless of what he says,” Independence City Attorney Jack Gatlin said.
The permitted and conditional uses allowed in a neighborhood commercial zone in Kenton County are listed here.
This is something that some city council members noted.
“My concern is the additional traffic in and out of the parking lot entrance that close to the busiest intersection in the city,” Independence City Councilmember Greg Steffen said.
Atkinson said car washes are not typically heavy-traffic operations unless there is salt on the road, which occurs only a few days a year.
None of the council members expressed opposition to the idea of rezoning.
