Valvoline Oil Change’s Greenwood location, 266 S. State Road 135, is pictured in this September 2022 Google Street View image. The company is planning to add a second Greenwood location on the city’s south side.
Provided photo | Google Street View
A new Valvoline location in Greenwood took a step toward becoming a reality Monday night.
Valvoline plans to build a new quick oil change facility on 0.91 acres near the southeast corner of East Worthsville Road and U.S. 31. This is to the immediate west of the Greenwood Lift Station located next to Endress+Hauser and east of the planned Wawa.
This would be the chain’s second Greenwood location, with the first located at 266 S. State Road 135.
Valvoline came before both the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals and Advisory Plan Commission for two separate requests. At the BZA, company representatives asked for a design variance to allow three overhead doors on their front facade instead of just one. This is because of the layout of the site, said Mike Mahalik, a designer at CESO, which is working with Valvoline.
“With this particular site as well, we are facing not only Worthsville Road, but the development is actually calling for another access road to the site’s west side,” Mahalik said. “So for us, it would be impractical to try to orient the building in such a way where we would not have the bay doors facing the right of way.”
City planning staff were in favor of approving the request, as there are “no viable alternatives” short of creating an “impractical” 90-degree turn within the building, city documents say. They also asked the developer to “substantially conform” to what was on the plans.
The BZA unanimously voted to approve Valvoline’s request.
As for the plan commission, Valvoline representatives asked for a landscape buffering waiver. This is because of a 33-feet-wide gas line easement, which makes it impractical for them to install a large amount of landscaping on the east side of the site, Mahalik said.
City planning staff were in favor of approving this request as well, saying the easement which is a “significant obstacle” to overcome for the requirements, city documents say.
While trees are not allowed within the easement, there are not any restrictions on planting shrubs. So city staff recommended Valvoline plant an additional 21 shrubs for a total of 67 within the easement, according to city documents.
“We’re definitely agreeable to installing 67 shrubs on the east side out there,” Mahalik said.
The waiver was ultimately granted by the plan commission in a 7-0 vote, with members David Lekse and Charrie Stambaugh absent.
The planned Valvoline is the latest project to come before a city board involving the long-vacant land between Endress+Hauser and U.S. 31 south of Worthsville Road.
Until Endress+Hauser announced their plans in early 2023 to expand westward, the land was once considered undevelopable. As part of Endress+Hauser’s $50.9 million expansion plans, the company teamed up with Unicorp National Developments, Inc. to evenly split up the 70 acres between the Greenwood campus and U.S. 31. Unicorp had immediate plans to develop the northwestern portion of the property into retail shops and restaurants.
Along with Valvoline and Wawa, the only other projects to have publicly come to light so far is a planned Crew Carwash.
