New Revive auto car wash and vacuum station proposed for Belleville

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Owners of commercial property at 217-219 North Front Street just north of the Dollar Store plaza are proposing a new, eco-friendly automatic car wash station called Revive for the site capable of queuing up to 30 cars at a time.

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In a virtual public meeting of the Planning Advisory Committee Monday, members heard the business venture by MB North Front Street would also offer 33 parking spaces including 18 vacuum stations.

Paul Demczal, land use planner with Victoria Management, said in a presentation to the committee the “site includes landscaping and fencing next to adjacent properties.”

The land, the former site of the demolished Sun Luck Gardens restaurant, is now designated as commercial land use under the city’s Official Plan.

“The proposed car wash, in my opinion, is complementary to a range of other automotive focused uses located in close proximity to the subject site and along the corridor including auto parts and accessory stores and automobile service and repair uses,” he said.

The auto car wash station would front on to the street along the north end of the property and would tout “glass primarily to provide a view into the cars moving through the facility.”

As much as 39 per cent of the site would be landscaped with up to 20 trees as part of buffer along the eastern boundary backing on to residences where an 2.5-metre acoustic fence would be erected.

Committee member Paul Jennings asked if any decibel numbers were available to give an indication of noise levels generated from the car wash and 18 car vacuums on site.

Demczal said, “regarding facility noise, I know the operator for Revive car wash uses essentially a vehicle drying system with a central vacuum system that is located in a separate soundproof building so you are not using individual vacuums for each parking space.”

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“What happens is that soundproof building provides a noise mitigation from the vacuuming to mitigate any potential impacts on adjacent properties,” he said.

To ensure minimal environmental impacts, Demczal told the committee that “pertaining to waste water, on site there is going to be an underground oil interceptor to capture oil sediments and oils as well as remaining waste water.’

“One of the big items that I know this specific operator obviously encourages from an environmental perspective is trying to reduce freshwater consumption. So, this is done by installing on site a high-tech, wastewater reclaim system as well as underground holding tanks that will allow for fine sediments to settle at the bottom as it travels through chambers and it is pumped back to the car wash facility through filtering system to basically use a grey water process to reuse water.”

The result is far less demand on potable water from the city.

The Revive car wash system “uses approximately 30 to 40 per cent of the freshwater that would be typically used if you were to, for example, wash you car at home,” he said.

The owner is asking for a minor zoning bylaw amendment and is filing a site plan control application as well.

The planning committee agreed to receive the report and asked for a staff report on the car wash proposal to include any feedback from the meeting.