Columbia County rejects commercial rezoning for proposed Ray Ray's Car Wash

Joe Hotchkiss, Augusta Chronicle
·3 min read
This rendering shows the location of a proposed car wash in Evans. The road above is Rountree Way showing the entrance to Ansley at Town Center Apartments. The road below is River Watch Parkway leading to Washington Road.
This rendering shows the location of a proposed car wash in Evans. The road above is Rountree Way showing the entrance to Ansley at Town Center Apartments. The road below is River Watch Parkway leading to Washington Road.

Columbia County commissioners rejected a rezoning request that would have allowed a car wash near one of the county’s busiest intersections, and on one of the last remaining large pieces of developable land in the Evans Towne Center district.

Even a plea from state Rep. Barry Fleming, who owns one of the land parcels in question, couldn’t convince enough commissioners this week to change the land to commercial zoning.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to keep residential zoning on eight adjacent pieces of property totaling 3 acres that front River Watch Parkway and Rountree Way, formerly the westernmost portion of Old Evans Road.

Gary Simpson, representing Raymerica LLC, asked commissioners to grant the rezoning to accommodate a proposed Ray Ray’s Car Wash on the land that includes several homes.

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Questions from county planning officials led the car wash developers to redraw its site plan “to sort of minimize the impact on adjacent property,” he said, including adding 30-foot buffers to abutting property lines. An identical Ray Ray’s already has been built at the Village at Riverwatch retail center near Interstate 20.

County code requires buffers of at least 50 feet between car washes and other property, Deputy County Manager Glenn Kennedy said. Commissioners would have to either waive or change that part of the ordinance if the site’s zoning changed to commercial.

Potential noise generated by the Ray Ray’s concerned Vice-Chairman and District 3 Commissioner Gary Richardson, who asked for several details regarding the proposed car wash’s tunnel blowers and vacuum systems and even the horsepower of the equipment. Richardson owns a chain of nine Sparkle Express Car Washes, eight of which are in the Augusta area.

Barry Fleming
Barry Fleming

Richardson also played an audio clip on his cell phone that he said was recorded while he stood in the middle of Washington Road, near the proposed site of the Ray Ray’s. The current sound level “is a little bit more than idling,” he said, with the potential to become louder if the car wash were built.

He also said that using the property for a car wash runs counter to the county’s Growth Management Plan for Evans Towne Center.

Fleming, speaking before the Board of Commissioners that he once led more than 20 years ago, said he bought the small residential parcel at 533 Rountree Way several years ago believing in the land’s future commercial potential. He said using the land for a car wash is “a reasonable use” for his and surrounding properties.

“This is probably about the third time or maybe fourth time since I have had ownership over there that somebody's tried to put together a tract to put something there,” Fleming said.

The commissioners’ 3-2 vote defeated the rezoning request, with Chairman Doug Duncan and District 1 Commissioner Connie Melear favoring the request.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Columbia County refuses to rezone residential property for car wash