A shuttered Rite Aid is expected to transform into a Spotless Car Wash.
Following a thorough review, questions and an hourlong conditional use hearing Monday night, the Falls Supervisors granted conditional use approval to permit Flagship Pennsylvania OPCO, LLC to open a Spotless Car Wash at the site of the former Rite Aid on 547 W. Trenton Ave.
Ray Garganio, Spotless Car Wash vice president, said that construction will take about seven months, as modifications are needed at the 3.155-acre site. The parcel is bound by Pine Grove Road and West Trenton Avenue and sits adjacent to Wawa.
The site would feature 11 parking spaces for workers and 12 spaces for vacuums, officials said. Existing lighting and landscaping would remain the same. The zoning hearing board in July imposed a condition to add a six- to eight-foot-high sound barrier to shield neighboring properties from outdoor vacuums.
Project engineer Kestra Kelly said the sound barrier consists of a “two-sided wood fence with sound attenuating fabric in the middle.” Similar barriers have been added at other Spotless sites, she said.
The company intends to “adaptively reuse” the former Rite Aid building “minus the drive-thru facility,” Kelly said. The site’s entrances and access points will remain the same. Lighting will be improved with the addition of LED fixtures, and the company will work to further reduce light spillage on neighboring properties, she said.
The car wash would be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, Kelly testified.
Upon entering the site, customers would be directed to one of three pay stations. A Spotless Car Wash employee would be at the pay station at all times to help customers. After paying for services, the customer would circulate into the wet tunnel, a traditional car wash, where the vehicle’s exterior is cleaned, followed by blowers to properly dry the vehicle. From there, customers can leave the site, or opt for a self-service vacuum, or interior vehicle cleaning provided by a car wash employee.
Supervisors John Palmer and Erin Mullen spoke in favor of adding a sound barrier along the exit. Mullen said she preferred natural landscaping as opposed to a fence.
Traffic Planning and Design Inc. conducted traffic studies and a trip generation comparison to the site’s previous use as a Rite Aid. Between Saturday peak hours of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., established Spotless Car Wash sites in Bowie, Md., Waldorf, Md., and Gainesville, Va., generate total trips of 143, 238 and 158, respectively.
The trip generation comparison showed far fewer vehicles – 108 with the proposed car wash compared to 150 with Rite Aid – during the weekday p.m. peak hour; and 1,081 car wash visits versus 1,566 Rite Aid stops during the weekday 24-hour period. Saturday peak hours anticipate 196 vehicles for the car wash as compared to 130 at the former Rite Aid.
The site will have adequate parking and “stacking” capabilities to accommodate higher volumes of traffic during peak hours, car wash officials said.
During the busiest of times, Garganio estimated that customers would be in line “less than 20 minutes.”
Provided that the plans remain substantially the same, Spotless Car Wash does not need to return to the board for land development approval.
“There’s no good reason that we can deny this because it’s a permitted use,” Supervisors Chairman Jeff Dence said. Along with the rest of the board, Dence voted in favor of granting conditional use approval.
“Personally, I think there’s way too many car washes in Falls Township,” he said.
