New car wash for old Agoura turned down by City Council

'There are real safety problems here,' opponents told the council



The Agoura Hills City Council turned down an appeal to build a carwash, lube and detailing center in Old Agoura.

The city’s planning commission denied the project in March, but developers Aitan and Schlomy Hillel and their representative, Tom Cohen, appealed the decision.

Opponents from the Old Agoura Homeowners Association said the carwash would have added to the congestion already created by the Partners in Learning Preschool, the Agoura Hills Senior Retreat, the Old Agoura Equestrian Center and Pony Club, and several apartment buildings and single family residiences.

The proposal called for a 4,700square foot carwash including a 750squarefoot second story office area, a 3,460square- foot attached canopy for a service area, and a freestanding 1,745 squarefoot automotive lube and detail building- all located at the southeast corner of Chesebro Road and Palo Comado Canyon Drive.

Although near the freeway corridor and within an area zoned for commercial retail services, the project’s proximity to the preschool, equestrian park and senior living facility did not go over well with city officials.

City Councilmember Bill Koehler noted inconsistencies in developers’ presentation and several examples of misleading information, including the distance from the carwash to the nearest resident (125 feet instead of 180 feet).

“It’s very disingenuous testimony,” Koehler said. “I find these facts disturbing.”

“My clients are not devils,” said Cohen on behalf of the builders. “We believe this project is in keeping with the Old Agoura ambience.”

Aitan Hillel agreed to mask the center by hiding 40 percent of it behind landscaping. Cohen said the property could not be seen from the street.

Architect Allan O’Connor said the buildings were designed in a “prairie/western style” with heavy timbers and stone architecture similar to the Agoura Hills Civic Center.

The center’s sign would incorporate western letters, a fountain would face the street on the corner, and meandering sidewalks would add a rural component to the carwash, O’Connor said.

“We think it fits in,” he said. The design elements and double landscaping would amount to a “park-like feeling.”

“They were simply not interested in listening to. . .how this use could be modified,” Cohen said.

After the planning commission denied the project earlier in the year, the developer came back with a revised set of plans. The second floor office was changed to a storage area and the retail and office areas were reduced in size.

To address the aesthetic concerns, a trash enclosure was relocated and a driveway reduced in size.

Another point of contention was the potential number of employees expected and the number of parking spaces to accommodate them.

The developers planned for 25 parking spaces with the idea that many of the employees would carpool, ride a bike or take a bus to work. But, the city requires one parking space for each employee regardless of their mode of transportation. The idea is to avoid overflow parking on the street.

Old Agoura resident Robert Evren spoke on behalf of the Old Agoura Homeowners Association and said the carwash would have an adverse affect on the equestrian park.

“Old Agoura may be the only neighborhood that still has roots in the surrounding countryside and recognizes that this is part of the world that wants to be desert,” Evren said. “So rocks and cactus and Palo Verde and oaks please, and no waterfalls where water is a scarce commodity.”

Kathy Hutchinson said a tutoring center for special needs children, including some children with autism, would be located within 50 feet of the proposed car wash machinery.

Sheldon Fried, owner of the preschool, said the noise levels were lowered from the previous planning commission report, but still worried that the sounds of the carwash would be detrimental to children.

Robert Evren, an Old Agoura resident representing the Old Agoura Homeowners Association, said the project was “sensitively clad,” but felt it wasn’t compatible with Old Agoura. He said volatile compounds at a carwash could hurt preschool children and elderly residents who are the most at risk for environmental toxins.

Planning Commissioner Illece Buckley Weber said she saw too many discrepancies in the way the environmental impacts were presented by the developer. “There are real safety problems here,” Buckley Weber said.

In all, 22 Old Agoura residents testified against the carwash and 30 others signed a petition.

Sherman Oaks resident Mario Forni spoke on behalf of the Hillel family. He urged commissioners to visit the brothers’ Pasadena carwash center to see how smoothly the business operates.

“Schlomy and his brother didn’t decide this area should be commercial; the city of Agoura Hills did,” Forni said.


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