Car Wash Controversy Concludes, Billboard Rules Surface

The Mission city council’s actions on April 28 ensure no new commercial car washes will be established within its city limits for the foreseeable future.

 

The one-mile radius and distance required between car washes was increased to two miles, with a unanimous council vote to amend an existing ordinance. The amendment means no new car wash facility can be developed within a two-mile radius of an existing wash business.

 

The city also corrected its error in its March 24 adoption of a car wash moratorium, which was not compliant with state law which limits a city’s ability to place bans on commercial development. No discussion was held, while city attorney Eden Ramirez, Jr recommended the council repeal ordinance 2683 which created the new car wash ban.

 

The new two-mile radius requirement provides the council the same desired outcome of a total car wash ban, as small slivers of land that might have previously accommodated a new wash are now prohibited from that type of development.

 

 

Included in the restriction is the intersection of Bryan Road and Griffin Parkway, where Blue Wave Car Wash hoped to open a new location on property owned by Mission attorney Rick Salinas.

 

Salinas filed a petition in federal court after the city created the car wash ban and claimed retaliation as he plans to run for office against current Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza. Salinas withdrew his lawsuit once the city indicated it would rescind the moratorium.

 

The city first took action in January, to create an ordinance restricting car washes from locating within one mile of an established car wash business. That one-mile ordinance included Salinas’s property, but errors made by city staff allowed Blue Wave to continue to plan development at the busy corner location. There is an established car wash on the corner of Conway and Griffin Parkway, less than one mile from Salinas’s property, which should have nixed the application by Blue Wave.

 

City planning director Xavier Cervantes sent an email on January 30 to Blue Wave representatives confirming the northeast corner of Bryan and Griffin is zoned as C-3 and eligible for a car wash development.

 

In his withdrawal, Salinas noted that an email received on April 23 from the city’s subdivision coordinator Gabrial Ramirez, which informed him that the city had measured wrong, and his property was within the one mile radius restriction.

 

“That’s fair,” Salinas told the Progress Times. “The rules are the rules and I’m going to abide by the rules.”

 

Also in its April 28 meeting, the council heard a request to deviate from its current rules regarding billboards just further down the Griffin Parkway corridor, between Glasscock and Shary Road.

 

 

“It’s a variance request of the billboard section of ordinance,” Cervantes said. “This is on Griffin Parkway in the commercial plaza where Barbecuties is located, the applicant is proposing a billboard to replace the existing pole sign. It doesn’t look like a typical billboard but the applicant desires to advertise the businesses from the plaza and other businesses, therefore it’s a billboard.”

 

The agenda documents indicate the variance request by Antonio and Melissa Villarreal, if approved, would replace the current pole sign with an LED electronic billboard that would stand 35-feet tall and hold two screens. The LED billboard would be able to play videos, as well.

 

Two obstacles stand in their way: a current city ordinance which prohibits new billboards along the Griffin Parkway corridor, and a second rule which dictates that billboards must be at least 1,000 feet apart in a commercial plaza.

 

The retail plaza already has one billboard, just 177 feet from the proposed electronic sign.

 

The city’s planning and zoning commission, which first reviewed the variance request, recommended the city deny the new sign, due to the close proximity of another billboard, city documents show. The documents do not list or describe the “reach” of the LED lights, or the potential for bright light pollution in surrounding residential areas.

 

Mayor Pro-Tem Ruben Plata asked Cervantes if tenants in the plaza are aware of the proposed sign change.

 

“I’m guessing that the owner has relayed the information to the businesses,” Cervantes responded.

 

“Well, you should have asked that question, because there are a lot of business owners there,” Plata said. “They pay a lot of money to get those signs, and this is something like a billboard, and you’re going to be charging now, and right now those people that have a sign there, it’s permanent.”

 

“We’ve spoken to the owner,” Villarreal said.

 

“But he’s not here,” Plata responded. “And my question was for him,” he added, gesturing to Cervantes.

 

The mayor expressed similar concerns.

 

“Other businesses would be able to advertise their businesses there,” Garza said. “They have a current sign, and it would be taken down.”

 

 

“We’re going to take care of them, guys,” Villarreal said. “They’re in good hands and we have contracts ready.”

 

The council opted to table this request for two weeks until its next meeting.

 

“We would be more comfortable with something in writing from the owner and the tenants,” Plata said. “They do pay rent and part of their rent is the advertising on the current signs.”

 

About 12 tenants in the plaza would be affected, if the city approves the two variance requests for the new billboard.