A Greenwood board approved more waivers for a proposed car wash that has sparked ire from nearby residents and city officials due to its location at the former site of a popular Greenwood restaurant.
Lotus Garden, a decades-old Chinese restaurant off U.S. 31 on Greenwood’s southside, closed its doors July 1, after the owner of the building sold the property at 49 Mercator Drive to Kopetsky Auto Wash. The company is planning to tear down the building and construct its second location sometime next year. The southside car wash would be Kopetsky’s second Greenwood location, and would be a near replica of its State Road 135 facility, according to construction plans.
CrossRoad Engineers, a firm representing Kopetsky, has requested several waivers from the city, including two submitted last month to the Greenwood Board of Public Works and Safety. The waivers would have addressed several issues related to stormwater runoff. Issues include stormwater release rates and stormwater detention.
During a board of public works meeting this week, the engineering firm representing the developer told the board they now needed just one waiver, after working with the city’s engineering and planning offices to address some of the issues.
Kopetsky had previously planned to build a dry detention basin, but a lack of underground space at the site limited the amount of detention. For the developer to build an underground stormwater detention system that would have work for a car wash, they would have had to raise the site by more than two feet. Now, after working with the city’s engineers, they have made efforts to maximize the value of the space they have and will no longer need to raise the site. The engineering firm withdrew the stormwater detention waiver following the changes, said Greg Ilko, an engineer representing Kopetsky.
The remaining waiver was for stormwater release rates. Following the detention changes, the car wash can now release 0.35 cubic feet per second per acre of runoff for a 100-year storm, Ilko said, though the city requires a rate of 0.5 cubic feet per second per acre. Release rates are the amount of stormwater released from a stormwater control facility at a specific moment in time.
City engineers gave the waiver a favorable recommendation. The plan increases the amount of detention and reduces the amount of release rates compared to the original design. While the changes still do not meet city requirements, it is an improvement, said Daniel Johnston, city engineer.
A couple of residents who live in the neighborhood behind the proposed car wash attended the meeting. Since the car wash was announced, nearby residents have criticized the city council and mayor’s office for not stopping waivers that were approved by the board. However, both the city council and mayor are prohibited by state law from interfering with the deliberations.
In the last four months, nearby residents and some city officials have expressed concerns about the building of a car wash on the property, and the waivers requested by Kopetsky.
During this week’s meeting, board member Kevin Hoover told the residents in the audience that the decision the board made would not affect the building of the car wash, as it had already gone through other city boards.
“Our consideration here tonight deals with just the drainage issues,” Hoover said. “It’s not whether or not this undertaking should be there or not; that’s been addressed by other boards in the city. It is beyond our consideration tonight.”
The board voted 2-1 to approve the drainage plans.
