FARMINGTON — The vote was not unanimous, but the Planning Commission recently gave the green light to a large-scale progression plan for a new car wash that will be on the lawn lot east of Arvest Bank on Main Street.
The commission voted 5-2 to approve Splash Inc. ‘s plan, which would be a facility for other car wash services in northwest Arkansas, with an automated access tunnel, 15 empty booths, a three-lane kiosk to pay for service and 15 parking spaces. An on-site retention pond will be used for stormwater drainage.
Car washing would be on about three-quarters of the 2. 4-acre plot. The domain at the rear of the assets is divided into residential zones and will remain a green space.
Commissioners Keith Macedo, Bobby Wilson, Howard Carter, Gerry Harris and Jay Moore voted in favor of the plan, the issue of the engineer’s memorandum and other situations. Commissioners Judy Horne and Chad Ball voted “no” to the motion.
The situations are that the dumpster will be allowed to be near the front of the property, but a split-face block will be used to hide the container, as well as a metal door. -Only manual outputs. Conditions come with that they can never be changed to allow cars to turn left in traffic on Main Street.
In addition to Main Street alleyways, consumers will need to enter or exit the business via a Green Street road, then turn left or right onto Main Street.
Tanner Freeman of Colliers Inc. presented Splash’s large-scale progress plan, with Phillip Lewis of Phillip Lewis Engineering Inc. Freeman said Splash is an Arkansas family business that is excited about doing business in Farmington. The company has between 15 and 20 cars washing the state, several of which are under structure in northwest Arkansas, according to Freeman.
During the commission’s discussion of the plan, Horne said the entire lot for a car wash was involved in the company.
“It’s a beautiful field, and I find it a waste of soil in the way it’s designed,” Horne said.
Ball said he was involved in the backlog of cars at payment kiosks and whether that would cause a bottleneck for cars circulating to exit Green Street. He wondered if cars would then be subsidized on Green Street, which in the residential domain behind the car wash.
Lewis said Splash read traffic and visitor numbers because it didn’t need to have stacking issues at payment kiosks. The Farmington car would have 3 lanes with paystands.
“It’s a big challenge for them because other people are getting impatient and they’re wasting customers,” Lewis said. “It’s a bit of science. “
Several commissioners were involved in other people looking to turn left of the car wash on Main Street. Freeman said the facility would have physical barriers in Main Street alleys to prevent cars from turning left.
Wilson asked if anything had been discussed with Arvest Bank related to connectivity to allow cars to reach smooth traffic at the intersection of Broyles and Main streets.
City engineer Chris Brackett of KMS Engineering Integrity said the city has had talks with Arvest and that the bank is not interested in cross-access. If Arvest had built its bench there in the last five years, cross-access would have been installed, but the bench built before the recommendations, Brackett said.
“So Arvest is interested in security?” replied Wilson. I’ll say it. “
Brackett under pressure from the city to force Arvest to supply connectivity.
Freeman said the company discussed the concept with Arvest and did not reach a final conclusion. So he went ahead with the existing concept.
Several members of the public addressed the commissioners with considerations or questions about development, and added Brent Vinson, site and plan coordinator for Arvest Bank, who showed up there to incorporate Arvest Bank.
Vinson said Arvest was opposed to a car on these assets for several reasons. He noted that there is a similar car not far away on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Fayetteville. He said the bank was involved in the noise of vacuum cleaners, garbage from other people cleaning cars, lighting installations and sewage generated by the car h.
Vinson said the bank was also involved in the traffic that would be generated through the company, noting that cars would most likely exit the car and then turn without delay into the Arvest parking lot to reach the smooth traffic on Broyles. . Vinson said that the bank sees this as a security factor for its customers.
He added that the bank opposed cross-access also for security reasons, namely for self-service vehicles or ATMs.
There have been discussions about the option of building an Arvest street from the car wash in Broyles, but it was pointed out that this would be a matter for the council as most of this land is owned by the people. Another concept was to install smooth traffic on Green Street, however, that would be a matter for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
A neighbor of Louise Street, the assets were involved in draining the development. This neighbor was confident that the structure of the typhoon’s drainage posts would not overcome runoff before the structure. Brackett said the assets would drain between Louise Street and Arvest into the creek.
Norm Toering of Farmington suggested commissioning for traffic generated through the facility and thinking about how traffic will accumulate as Farmington grows over the next few years.
“Just a comment. We’re growing,” Toering said. Everyone south of us is growing. Traffic is going to get worse on the 62nd, and as a planning commission, you have to check it out. If we let other people out and there’s no light, it’s going to get worse. “
He added: “We have to think, what do we do?Because you said it better, idiots are going to turn left. And if you think traffic is bad now, wait. “3 or 4 years. It’s going to be triple guys.
Toering was asked for recommendations, and he wondered why the company didn’t join Arvest to access light. He said he thought the car wash would be busy and that other people living in the community would be affected by the additional traffic. when they tried to leave Green Street on Main Street.
Lewis confided to commissioners that Splash is a corporate that does its studies before buying a property.
“It’s going to be very clean, very high-quality fabrics on the outside,” Lewis said.
In response to Macedo’s questions, City Attorney Steve Tennant said a car wash is allowed in a C-2 zone in Farmington and that the company has any and all rights to request the structure of a car wash on that property.