Car wash proposed for dormant Buffalo Grove restaurant site

A new car wash could give a fresh sparkle to a former restaurant site that has been gathering dust on Milwaukee Avenue in Buffalo Grove.

On Monday, the Buffalo Grove village board sent to its planning and zoning commission a proposal for a car wash on the nearly 1-acre site once occupied by a Korean barbecue restaurant, Grill on the Rock, 301 Milwaukee Ave.

If the car wash were a restaurant, the format would be fast food.

"It is meant to be an express wash. It's not a full service (car wash)," Brian Paul, speaking for the petitioner, told the board Monday.

The plan calls for the demolition of the existing building and construction of a 3,600-square-foot car wash, with canopy-covered payment stations, two lanes for vehicles and 17 vacuum stations.

Paul said the property includes floodplain, but it is in a driveway around the back of the building. According to the petitioner, the project will provide compensatory flood storage along the north side, while the building will be elevated to meet flood protection standards.

Paul pointing out that three-quarters of the site is now a parking lot.

"I don't think there is a tree out there. Maybe a weed or two," he said.

Operating hours would be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the summer and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the winter.

The property would be lit exclusively with LED lighting.

"We do understand the stigma of car washes and noise," Paul added. "We did a noise study out there and then checked the actual levels that are on Milwaukee (Avenue) right now. Milwaukee (Avenue) generates more noise than this will."