Washville Car Wash Proposal Continued, Faces Resident Opposition

Tewksbury Community Market returns to Livingston Street on June 6; Melmark project approved

The Planning Board met last night with all members present. There were no committee reports.

In her Town Planner’s report, Community/Economic Development Planner Alexandra Lowder advised the board that several new family suite applications will be presented on June 3. Developers of the rather pricey townhouses at 2131 Main St. will be in for landscape and impervious surface changes, while owners of the NAPA Auto Parts at 792 Main St. will seek a retail area expansion.

Lowder reminded residents of the upcoming Taste of the Town event and encouraged residents to visit the Tewksbury/Wilmington Chamber website for more details and said the YMCA and Chess Wizards programs are off to a strong start.

A sure sign of spring: The Tewksbury Community Market returns to Livingston Street on Thursday, June 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. 

“We have a great group of vendors lined up for this year, with a handful of new faces and a lot of returning favorites,” she said. “Keep an eye on the town’s social media and website for announcements.”

With the departure of Joe Fontaine, the town is seeking a new conservation agent to work with the Conservation Commission. The position is posted here.

The board unanimously accepted an as-built for a townhouse development at 1418 Main St. and released the bond.

Washville Faces Questions On Noise, Traffic
The board picked up the Washville car wash proposed for 402 Main St., currently the site of Tewksbury Florist & Greenery. The two-acre parcel with 160 feet of frontage on Rt. 38 was put on the market for $2.5 million in October 2022. 

Company EVP Jim Waterman and Garrett Piccirillo and Heather Monticup of GPI appeared for Washville, a rapidly growing company that currently has about two dozen locations operating and in development, including three in Massachusetts and six in New Hampshire, that operate from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The company is looking to completely demolish the existing greenhouses and other buildings and construct a single-tunnel car wash, decreasing impervious surface on the site and adding stormwater and groundwater treatment systems. Water from the car wash itself will be recycled via underground tanks.

At the March meeting, Piccirillo presented a new design that addressed board concerns including the lack of an escape lane. Several EV stations were added, as was an increased setback to bring the building inline with the town’s bylaws. Overall, with some signage and directional line tweaks, the board was pleased with the redesign. The major issue was drainage.

Fast forward to May and board members’ skepticism has shifted to traffic. Monticup presented numbers that showed no worse of an impact than a typical fast food restaurant, and the town’s traffic consultant said MassDoT is in the process of improving the traffic control system in the area. He agreed that the project would likely not exacerbate the existing traffic.

Board members pushed on “worst case” impacts. 

“If I did 1,500 cars in and out in a day, I would have plenty more than 18 of these things,” said Waterman of customer washes on a peak day. “I haven’t hit a thousand in Massachusetts yet.”

Despite assurances from the town’s consulting engineer that the traffic study tends to be a worst-case projection, some board members were unconvinced. 

“The last thing I want to do is bring more traffic to a town that’s already complaining about traffic on a regular basis,” said Vinny Fratalia — a notion Chair Stephen Johnson pushed back on.

“Your alternative is to simply say no to every business that could possibly go on the lot, because a car is either going to come in or out unless they don’t ever need customers,” said Johnson. “Unsuccessful businesses aren’t going to last.”

The traffic consultant did factor in the new cannabis dispensary opening in the Job Lots plaza. Washville added about 100 feet of additional concrete sidewalks and made signage adjustments as requested by the board. The Board of Health asked for two conditions, on length of time cars can idle and noise restrictions. Piccirillo said the decibel level of the car wash is within Tewksbury bylaws, and in fact, Waterman added that the Tewksbury location will have special sound-deadening equipment. 

Wamesit Lanes owner Donald MacLaren Jr., above, challenged that assertion.

“I had to go through an entire process with the Board of Selectmen to reduce our noise, and I am now subject to stay under 60 decibels, monitored every hour on the hour, for any events that we have,” said MacLaren. “This is a very sound sensitive area. I don’t think we’ve spent enough time talking about sound.”

He challenged Waterman on whether any Washville site is currently in violation of noise ordinances in the towns where the company operates; the answer was no, with Waterman adding that they’ve made adaptations to equipment to operate much more quietly here than in other locations.

MacLaren was not convinced.

“The information that we are receiving is a bunch of smoke and mirrors — it’s not accurate,” he said. “I have accurate information that will show the complete opposite.”

He also objected to the estimate of the number of vehicles per day, saying the car wash is built for 120 cars an hour. 

“It’s not hard to do math to see that this thing is going to be pushing some serious cars,” he said. “They’re going to be queuing up minute after minute, second after second. A belt breaks inside your conveyor, that line gets queued up and my staff and my customers have to listen to the vehicles running … they have to taste the emissions in their cheeseburgers and their chicken sandwiches.”

MacLaren’s attorney, Don Borenstien, spoke next, saying his client does not want a highly trafficked use — he threw out 1,500 cars per day, again, well about the petitioner’s estimate — adjacent to Wamesit Lanes.

“Is this use appropriate for that location?” he asked. “I ask you to consider that.”

Waterman said they have not had a violation of cars idling longer than is allowable because they’re able to move vehicles through quickly, and that he would install signage to ask customers to observe the bylaw.

In another twist, an attorney for the property owner across the street said the Petro Mart gas station car wash, which was closed when this project was proposed, has been reopened. That didn’t seem to be an issue for the petitioners — there are plenty of successful businesses in town, from sub shops to nail salons, with adjacent competitors.

After a puzzling aside about an exercise class for children, Jim Duffy and Nick Lizotte indicated that they’d like more time to consider the new information. Johnson suggested the petitioners prepare to address concerns over noise and idling. Additional traffic information probably wouldn’t hurt, either. 

Washville is scheduled to return on June 3. 

Melmark Receives Signoff
The third appearance was the charm for Melmark, whose signage updates received a positive reception. Duffy asked one question about engineering; Lowder said DPW had consulted with the applicants.

“I want to be first in line at the coffee shop,” said Duffy. 

All special permits were approved unanimously.

With no correspondence — including no request for a Planning Board member on the new Long Range School Space Planning Committee — the meeting was adjourned. The board meets next on June 3.