News

Aug 29, 2023

‘Stop the carwash’: Glendale residents fight auto dealer’s construction plans

The Glendale Chrysler Jeep Ram auto dealer at 10070 Manchester Road is seen near

The Glendale Chrysler Jeep Ram auto dealer at 10070 Manchester Road is seen near residential homes on Friday, May 26, 2023. Some nearby residents are opposed to the car dealership's plans to build a car wash on the site.

The five-member Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend Aldermen approve the plan but limit the car wash's hours of operation, require the facility's doors be shut for the entire time a car is being washed, and bar the facility from using loud speakers.

GLENDALE — Visitors to StoptheCarwash.com see a Photoshopped car wash wedged between two homes and an urgent message: Pack a Wednesday meeting of the Planning Commission and "join us in the fight to stop this very bad idea!"

The bedroom suburb of Glendale, est. 1912, "has always been known for its gracious homes and its desirable qualities as a family community," the website says. Development was "gradual and planned," resulting in "a general harmony of home styles and landscaping."

But a car dealership's plan to build a private car wash to clean its vehicles about 100 feet from neighboring backyards threatens to bring noise pollution and "unsightly" additions that would ding home values, residents behind the website say.

"Nobody would want one of these in their backyard," said Kevin Kissling, a 29-year resident and one of a handful of homeowners right behind Glendale Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership at 10070 Manchester Road.

The dealer, owned by Merlo Automotive Group, also wants to expand its service building to add 14 bays, build a storage facility on its property about 50 feet from residences, remove some of the trees providing a buffer for the homes and replace current chain link fence with a plastic vinyl one.

Jenni Belding, the dealership's general manager and a Merlo Auto representative, did not respond to an interview request but said in a statement the dealership's project would allow it modernize and provide a better service for "customers and our neighbors."

"We have always done our best to make sure that we are a beneficial partner for the city and its neighbors," Belding said. "And every improvement to our property has been conducted with our neighbors in mind."

It's just one of countless city-planning fights across the St. Louis region, tasking governments with balancing development — and resulting tax revenue — with residents' concerns.

In Des Peres, residents have fought to try to keep a medical marijuana business from selling pot to recreational users. In Olivette last year, residents near the border with St. Louis County pushed for action against a factory in the county that had racked up violations. The Missouri Supreme Court last year upheld the City of Creve Coeur's decision to block construction of a Quick Trip, citing traffic concerns.

In Glendale, a tree-lined suburb where the median home value is $427,900, residents have knocked on doors and made yard signs, sent letters to city officials and the dealership, monitored Planning Commission meetings, retained a lawyer, driven out to existing car washes to record sound samples, built a website and bought a corresponding advertisement in The Webster-Kirkwood Times.

More than 140 residents have so far signed statements of support: "Please don't let his happen to sweet Glendale," one statement reads.

The dealership, which first introduced its plans in 2021, has made several concessions since in response to residents' outcry, shrinking the car wash from two lanes to one, dropping plans to build a back parking lot and retaining wall, and reducing the amount of grading and tree removal planned.

Residents draw the line at the car wash, but they also want the dealership to make other modifications to the plan they say will preserve the buffer, their neighborhood's aesthetics and and their peace.

"Our community was founded as a residential community, and that should take precedence," said Chris Nitzsche, another neighbor.

On a recent day in Glendale, a drive down two-lane North Berry Road and North Sappington roads passes picturesque homes with well-manicured lawns. Lawn signs to "Stop the Carwash" and "Protect Glendale neighborhoods" can be seen as far south from Brookside Drive as Hanneke's Westwood Grocery, a longtime family business near West Lockwood Avenue.

Numbering around 750 people in the 1920s, Glendale's borders were largely fixed by 1932, and it grew gradually to a population of nearly 7,000 by 1970.

To date, the Glendale auto dealer, which opened in 1967, is one of a handful of businesses on Glendale's main commercial zone on Manchester, the suburb's north border. It paid $122,544 in property taxes for 2022.

The homes on Brookside, just south of the dealership, were built in the years around 1940. Kissling and his family moved into theirs in 1994.

The dealership posed no problem then. Or for the next 25 or so years, he said.

The auto dealership in 2011 won city approval to build its current service bay, with conditions it limit hours of operation and maintain a 50-foot buffer zone between it and the homes. The buffer today includes a grass hill with trees leading up to a chain link fence, protected on top with barbed wire, and trees on both sides of the fence.

But the dealership often piled tires and spare parts on the hill, and in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, the dealer began using an alarm system that prompted noise complaints, residents say. The trees the dealership was required to plant in 2011 weren't put in the ground until 2021.

"They’ve got a demonstrated track record of not living up to rules and regulations," Nitzsche said.

Across the street, Chris Burridge, 61, is among neighbors sporting the yard sign to "Stop the Carwash."

The family has lived on Brookside for 28 years, moving to their current home from a house just down the block.

"That's how much we love our street," she said.

It was at one of their regular block parties in 2021 that neighbors told her about the dealership's rumored construction plans. Homes are the "biggest investment most of us make in our lives" — and Glendale's are ideal, she said.

"I’ve never been to city hall as much I have in the last two years," she said.

The Planning Commission, an advisory board to the Board of Aldermen, is expected to vote on the current proposal Wednesday. The commission chair referred comment to City Administrator Ben DeClue, who said the Board of Aldermen would also hold a public hearing on the matter in June. DeClue said the dealership has been responsive to any complaints and worked well with the city.

"The city takes the concerns of its residents seriously," he said. "And it seriously looks to work with the applicant to address those concerns in a way that hopefully everybody can come to a resolution."

Paula Roberts and Ed Merkel have repurposed many items in their home to fit the needs of their family. Video by Hillary Levin

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