Special meeting called to determine if property owner has ‘vested right’ for a car wash
Less than two weeks after Cape Coral City Council approved new restrictions on the location of new car wash facilities, the elected board has scheduled a special meeting to hear an exception.
The special meeting will be held Wednesday afternoon to determine whether North Medical Land Company, LLC, has vested rights to develop a new car wash as per provisions in a previous ordinance that had placed a temporary hold on the permitting of such facilities.
The previous Council action place a moratorium on car washes but provided an opportunity for a vested rights determination within 90 days of the measure’s effective date. Once the application had been received, Council had to “hold a public hearing and make a determination as to whether the property owner has established vested rights based on the documentation provided.”
A letter was submitted by attorney Bryan Stanley on July 15, representing Boos Development Group, Inc., the contract buyer of the property in question.
“Recently, after quite a bit of effort and spending, NMLC and Boos were made aware of the fact that a moratorium has been adopted by the city, which may preclude the property’s development of a car wash.”
The purchase agreement was signed after a month of negotiations on Sept. 21, 2023. On April 11, 2024, Boos submitted an engineered site plan for the city’s approval. On May 15, according to the letter, the city disclosed the moratorium. The city accepted the plan on May 24.
In a followup action to its temporary moratorium, Council, earlier this month, approved a number of restrictions on new car wash facilities. The approved ordinance, which includes a new subsection requiring more landscape buffering, calls for a minimum separation distance between such facilities of one mile.
Car wash locations also are limited to primary frontage on minor collectors, major collectors, minor arterial, major arterial and principal arterial roadways.
The facilities also must be located at least 500 feet away from any major intersection involving any combination of collector and, or arterial roadways.
Similar restrictions were also placed on self-storage facilities, which also were subject to the earlier moratorium on new facilities.
The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, in City Council chambers, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd. The meeting is open to the public.