Council approves amendment to allow car wash at Regency Mall after parking concerns

The Racine Common Council on April 14 approved a final-plan amendment to the Regency Mall planned-development conditional-use permit to allow a new car wash at 2521 South Green Bay Road, after a debate focused on whether the site plan provides adequate employee and handicap parking.

The item, filed as 0382-25, was the subject of public comment and lengthy council discussion. Resident Mike Wilcom told the council the site plan “only allocated 4 employee parking stalls” and argued that “this large car wash is gonna take a minimum of 5 employees on a Saturday,” adding that he believed the plan lacked a required handicap space. “I was told by somebody in planning that it meets the code because it's in a mall outlot, but that code was written in 1973,” Wilcom said during public comment.

The council debated whether to delay the final approval and refer the item back to the Planning, Heritage and Design Commission. Alder Kaprielian moved to refer 0382-25 back to the planning commission for further review; Alder Weidner seconded. That referral motion failed 5-9. Council then proceeded to consider the final-plan approval; the transcript records that the council voted on the main motion, but the final vote tally on the approval is not specified in the meeting transcript.

City planning staff told council the Regency Mall property has shared parking across the planned development and that “there's already 20 acres of parking there” and a four-acre parcel across the ring road with roughly 120 spaces available. Staff said individual outlots in the mall are not required to meet freestanding parking counts because the planned development allows shared parking. Staff also advised that ADA parking is determined during the building-permit phase under the building code, not during zoning review: “ADA parking requirements are added at the end during the building permitting process. That's a function of the building code and not the zoning ordinance.”

Council members who opposed referral said delaying the item would further slow a project that staff said was already behind schedule, while supporters of referral said operational experience from existing car-wash operators suggested the council should take a closer look at employee parking before final sign-off. Alder Sebastian noted an existing nearby facility at Spring Street and Green Bay Road that also shows four employee parking spaces on its site plan.

The planning record presented to council indicates the Regency Mall plan is a long-standing planned development (dating to 1978), which the staff said was designed to share parking across uses. Conditions of final approval were referenced in the planning commission’s recommendation; council members discussed but did not alter those stated conditions during the floor debate.

The decision clears the item off the council’s agenda for tonight; the transcript does not record the exact final vote tally on the approval. Council discussion and the public comment record indicate the primary outstanding concerns raised were employee parking counts and the timing of ADA parking provisions, which staff said are enforced during building permitting.

The council’s action is likely to be followed by the building-permit process, where the building official will confirm required ADA stalls and other site-plan details prior to construction.

The council record shows the referral attempt and the main motion to approve were the principal formal actions recorded for item 0382-25.