Revere Council hears special-permit pitch for car wash at 350 Squire Road; item referred to zoning

Attorney Jerry D'Ambrosio, representing New York Capital Investment Group LLC, presented a special-permit application on behalf of the Drury family’s Prestige Car Wash for 350 Squire Road during the Revere City Council hearing on May 19.

D'Ambrosio said the roughly 24,000-square-foot parcel is in a General Business district and described the proposed facility as a single-story, roughly 3,400-square-foot building about 30–35 feet high, with queueing for more than 20 cars on the lot. “This is a 0.15 floor-area ratio project in a district that allows a 1.5 FAR — it is ten times less dense than what could be built by right,” D'Ambrosio said. He told the council the project would remediate a long-blighted site, upgrade stormwater controls and increase on-site stormwater pickup by “20 to 30%.”

Why it matters: Councilors and neighbors focused on traffic, noise and environmental safeguards as they weighed whether a car-wash use would be less detrimental than other allowed uses for the site. If approved through zoning and site-plan review, the applicant said the facility would generate commercial tax revenue for the city and remove a longstanding eyesore.

Members of the public spoke both for and against the proposal. Anthony Paziale (51 Arcadia St.) and Kenny Cutler (111 Bridal Lane) said they supported the project for the commercial revenue and consumer choice it would bring. “When I hear commercial revenue, a big smile goes across my face,” Paziale said. Jim Sherman (137 Keeney St.), a neighborhood director, said he opposed the project at first but withdrew his opposition after neighborhood meetings led to changes on site access, vacuum noise mitigation and trash location.

Opponents raised traffic and noise concerns. Rich DiFrancesco (142 Augusta St.) said he worried about cars queuing after snowstorms and noise from blowers at the rear of the facility. “I was standing probably about 50 feet away...it was still fairly loud,” DiFrancesco said after visiting an existing location cited by the applicant.

Councilors asked detailed questions about hours, queuing and environmental controls. Councilor Giannino asked for hours of operation; the applicant replied the proposed hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Councilor Kelly noted the assessor’s office gave an estimated post-construction property-tax figure of about $36,000 annually; D'Ambrosio had earlier told the council he expected the tax revenue to roughly quadruple from the current figure (the applicant said the current tax is roughly $17,000). D'Ambrosio said construction cost would be roughly $3 million.

On traffic and queuing, the applicant said the lot was designed with more on-site queueing than originally planned to keep vehicles off Squire Road and that the operation could accept a police detail if necessary to manage queuing during periods of unusually high demand.

No final vote on the permit was taken. The council closed the public hearing segment and referred the application to the zoning subcommittee for further review and site-plan conditions, including lighting, landscaping, fence type and final traffic mitigation.