Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

While you could not say the tide came in for RipTide Car Wash during Thursday night’s Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission meeting, it rose enough for the site plan to be approved, 3-0 with two abstentions.

It was also enough to spur discussion about a future review of the city’s zoning ordinance.

As was done during the September meeting, Planning Director Rich DeGroseilliers told the commissioners that all site requirements for the car wash had been met and that staff members had recommended approval. Commission Chair Dena Bass, Vice Chair Bill Taylor, and Commissioner Dan Holder voted in favor of approval, while Commissioners Wes Frazier and James Little abstained. Commissioners Myles Cook and Richard Culver were absent.

Frazier and Little voted against preliminary approval during the June meeting, both questioning whether the city was giving up prime real estate when there are already 11 other car washes in the area. When the plan was brought before commissioners in September, the vote deadlocked 3-3, with Bass, Holder, and Taylor voting to approve the site plan, while Little, Frazier, and Culver voted against approval. Cook was absent.

During the September meeting, Bass said it was hard to reject approval of a site plan when all requirements had been met. Before Thursday night’s vote, Bass issued a warning, noting that the plan had been before the commission for several months.

“And I understand there’s a lot of people that would prefer to see something besides a car wash, but you need to remember this meets all the criteria that has been set forth by the city, and denial of this can have consequences for the city,” she said.

The car wash will be constructed on the former site of Fatz Café, 980 Overmountain Drive, after the restaurant building is demolished. The Elizabethton location was one of 18 closed throughout the Southeast on Aug. 23, 2023. The project includes a 6,605-square-foot building footprint on the 1.8-acre lot, with 59 parking spaces – 29 of which will be queuing spaces with 30 vacuum spaces.

Before the meeting ended, Little again raised the issue of the types of businesses being constructed in an arterial zone, saying he and others who are critical of the plan maintain the city “lost a prime restaurant location.”

“We’ve got enough car washes in Carter County. We’ve got enough storage buildings in Carter County. You’ve got enough Dollar Generals in this county, and we’ve got enough used cars and junkyards in this county,” Little said, addressing DeGroseilliers. “We need something that’s got a little more teeth in it to prevent something coming here into arterial business that we have no say-so about. That is my opinion, and several others.”

“We’re going to be looking at the whole zoning ordinance,” DeGroseilliers said, explaining the current ordinance lacked various definitions, such as places of assembly and car washes.

“We’ve got one for a tin shop, but we don’t have one for a car wash,” Little said in what seemed to be an acknowledgment of the current zoning limitations.

The planning director said as the zoning ordinance stands, the city is unable to say the new owner of the property must use the property for a restaurant. “That’s one of the things you’ve gotta be cautious about,” he said.

City Manager Daniel Estes was in attendance Thursday night and suggested to commissioners there was a future opportunity for the Planning Commission and City Council to “get on the same page” regarding what, if any, changes need to be made with respect to zoning. At this point, Estes said, the city is in “a little bit of transition” since a new council member had been elected and a new mayor has yet to be elected.

“We need a meeting of minds there for what’s best appropriate for the vision for the community in the long term,” Estes said. “That’s really what zoning is about, it’s bending toward the type of development that you want in the places that you want it.”

Estes told Little he also caught heat from the public about the former Fatz building being demolished and a car wash being constructed on that parcel.

“The problem is, they think we went and recruited this car wash and that’s not fair,” he said. “Because here’s the thing: Fatz went into bankruptcy. Somebody went with a nice check … to go and purchase that property and that puts them in a position like any other landowner would be. If it’s allowed by right in that zone, they can do that.”

The Regional Planning Commission will next meet in regular session at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.