Lebanon planning commission reverses car wash decision

During the November planning commission meeting, Lebanon Economic Development Director Sarah Haston said that there were originally several businesses expected for the site before a conditional use application was submitted for a car wash.

“This is a different position for me,” Haston said. “This is hard for me because I’m very much pro-development. I recruit new business, but at the same time, in economic development, you have to have that best use for the land, and we do not believe as a staff that this is the best.”

Even though the Mister Car Wash site plan met all the rules and regulations Lebanon had put into place, the planning commission originally voted to deny it.

“The car wash company sued, and the chancellor sent it back to the planning commission and told them they had to approve it,” Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell said.

The motion to decline the site plan passed unanimously in November. When the site plan appeared before the planning commission after being remanded for approval, the approval was also unanimous.

Now that its site plan for 1555 West Main St. has been approved, Mister Car Wash will have to go through the engineering process.

Bell said that this car wash is what led him to sponsor the ordinance that limits what locations car washes can be built in.

“The property is primed for something better than that, and before I became Mayor, work was being done to get a Starbucks there or a Five Guys, something that people really want,” Bell said. “The developer ended up selling the property to a car wash.”

The zoning change passed by the Lebanon City Council limits car washes to industrial zoning and conditional office professional zoning.

“Car washes recently have been taking up valuable places that can be used for what we think would be better uses,” Bell said. “We do not collect sales tax off of car washes.”