Wheat Ridge to issue notice of noncompliance to car wash after neighbors report persistent noise

Wheat Ridge City staff told council members and neighbors on June 23 that they will issue a formal notice of noncompliance to the operator of a car wash near 40th and Gray, setting specific short- and longer-term deadlines to reduce noise and to show progress toward compliance with the facility’s special use permit.

Neighbors described months of sleep disturbance, anxiety and health impacts at the meeting’s public-comment period. “I just want my peace back,” said Gretchen Josten, a Wheat Ridge resident, describing a need to wear headphones to be outside and calling the situation “a nightmare.” Mike Josten, who also spoke, and other neighbors said the noise comes primarily from blowers and from bay doors left open at night.

Lauren Mikolak, Wheat Ridge’s community development director, said the city and the city attorney prepared a draft notice of noncompliance that staff planned to send “tomorrow,” and that it will include a set of near-term and longer-term corrective deadlines. “That notice is in draft form and prepared to be issued tomorrow with a series of very specific… I think I’m now up to maybe five or six specific deadlines,” Mikolak said. She added staff is seeking deadlines that are “measurable and understandable for both the operator… and the…