A Saugus business owner is looking to be the latest to add a car wash to Bouquet Canyon Road.
An application for the Chevron gas station at Bouquet Canyon and Urbandale Avenue is looking to move away from its auto shop business and improve activity at the location with the growing sector.
Specifically, there have been several car washes added to Bouquet Canyon in recent years, with a January discussion at the Planning Commission prompted by one business owner’s complaints about a new location going across from his.
Ultimately planners approved the Mister Car Wash at Bouquet Canyon and Newhall Ranch roads over the objections of Chris Kim, the owner and operator of the Crista Car Wash and Chevron gas station across the street.
He lamented the proximity of the Shell gas station car wash at Bouquet and Seco canyon roads, the Bubbly Express car wash at Bouquet Canyon and Valencia Boulevard and the Dapper Dan’s at Bouquet Canyon and Magic Mountain Parkway.
Bouquet Canyon and Newhall Ranch has been identified as the busiest in the city in terms of daily traffic volumes, with more than 87,000 vehicles travelling through there every day.
However, the project consultant for the application at Bouquet and Urbandale said that property offers a few unique advantages and makes sense for a couple of reasons.
The property currently has a mechanic’s shop but business is slower recently, with more people taking their cars to dealerships for maintenance, according to Mike Rabadi, who’s listed as the point of contact for the project. He speculated the increase in popularity of electric cars could be playing a role.
He said the station has seen somewhat lower demand for gas at the pump, and that, combined with the large queueing space on the corner lot, make it a perfect spot, Rabadi said. He also said the design of the car wash would not impact local traffic because the lot would be able to accommodate the queueing lanes necessary.
It’s also a bit farther north from the aforementioned cluster of car washes, he added.
The one-stop review proposes the car wash as a 1,320-square-foot addition to the existing property at 27777 Bouquet Canyon Road.
A one-stop review is “a preliminary design review of a plan concept,” according to city officials, who also previously have described a one-stop review as part of an informational process a property owner or prospective property owner can go through to find out a project’s feasibility. It does not lead to any approvals.
