By Teri Carnicelli

Editor’s Note: The renderings included with this story show the proposed car wash, convenience store and overall new site plan for the Chevron station at 7th Avenue and Bethany Home Road.

    A proposed total redevelopment of the Chevron station at 7th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, first built in 1957, has caused some concern among residents living near the property.

    John Afshar and his family have owned the station, and the vacant lot directly to the south, since December 2000. Earlier this year his company, Caspian Sea Inc., filed several requests with the city’s Planning Department to allow the site to be completely redeveloped with a drive-through car wash and convenience store with higher-end packaged beer and wine sales.

 

In order to redevelop the site, Afshar needs a use permit for the alcohol sales, a use permit to extend the development 15 feet into his southern lot (which is zoned R-5, residential), and two variances to reduce landscape setbacks on all sides and the building setback just to the south.

 

 

    The proposal calls for the convenience store to face north, with the 10-foot driveway of the carwash circling behind it—into the southern lot—before hooking back up to the east side of the commercial corner, where the new car wash will sit.

    The proposed car wash on the far east side of the lot has caused concern among nearby residents, who expressed their opposition at a July 8 meeting between Ashfar and about 16 residents.

The neighbors were not happy with the placement, the potential noise impact, or the height of the car wash, which will be about 14 feet.

        Ashfar told the residents that the car wash will only operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the spring and summer, and likely will shut down earlier in the fall and winter as it gets darker much earlier in the evenings. He also has commissioned a noise study, which looked at existing drive-through car washes at other stations that are using the latest technology similar to what his proposed car wash will have to determine the noise level impact on the immediate surrounding area.

    Residents also did not like the driveway for the car wash coming into his residentially zoned lot to the south, but Ashfar said that he couldn’t shift everything more to the north because of an existing APS easement. An R-5 zoning designation does allow for a slightly heavier use than a single-family home, such as a daycare center, preschool or apartments. Ashfar says he has no plans at this time to develop the remainder of that lot, and will landscape the rest of it, serving as a buffer to the Palo Verde Drive homes to the south.

    The convenience store is planned to have limited grocery items, such as bread, milk and snacks, along with pre-made breakfast and packaged lunch items that can be heated in a microwave, if needed. Ashfar also wants to sell high-end packaged beer and wine, something neighborhood residents have protested, saying that with a Circle K kitty-corner from the Chevron, there is no need to add more liquor sales to the area.

    Ashfar emphasizes it will be a different product, and therefore a different clientele, from Circle K, which sells single cans and bottles of beer. Ashfar says his market only will sell microbrewed or specialty beers and a more sophisticated wine selection, something someone might pick up on the way home for dinner or a social event.

    The city was set to look at Ashfar’s requests at a July 23 meeting, but he asked for a continuance so that the studies he had commissioned on noise, traffic patterns, and crime statistics could first be completed. The hearing has been rescheduled for Thursday, Aug. 27, at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall.

    In the meantime, Ashfar and his representatives were set to meet again with the neighborhood in the first week of August in order to present the study results and answer more questions. Neighbors say they want to see a compromise plan, one without a car wash and without liquor sales. But Ashfar contends that he needs those income-generating items in order to help pay off the $2 million loan he is obtaining for this redevelopment.

    To comment on the redevelopment plan, email zoning@phoenix.gov, referencing case ZA 222-09-6.