Revere City Council host public hearing for proposed Squire Rd. car wash

By Barbara Taormina

The City Council held a public hearing this week on New York Capital Investment Group’s request for a special permit to build and operate a car wash at 350 Squire Rd. The petitioner was represented by Attorney Gerry D’Ambrosio, who offered a detailed description of the state-of-the-art car wash, the site and the business. The petitioner is the owner of Prestige Car Wash, which has locations in several nearby cities.

According to D’Ambrosio, a traffic study showed that the car wash would generate less traffic than other allowed uses on Squire Road. There is room for a line of 20 cars on the site without anyone spilling over to Squire Road.

D’Ambrosio said the site now is blighted property. ”It’s important that the general business district should not have the black eye of this site,” he said.

Ward 6 Councillor Chris Giannino said the site has been neglected for seven years and it’s about time something was done there. “I’ve talked to the neighbors over there and most of them are on board with this,” said Giannino.

Councilor-at-Large Michelle Kelley said she also appreciated that the petitioner had held two neighborhood meetings about the project. “You’ve been very amenable to concerns from neighbors, and you’ve changed the design and really tried to work with the community,” said Kelley, adding, “and I’m grateful for that.”

Kelley did correct D’Ambrosio’s statement that tax revenue from the car wash would quadruple from the current $17,000 payments. Kelley said she spoke with the assessor’s office and the anticipated tax revenue from the business would be $36,000.

D’Ambrosio said several times that there were nine letters of support from neighbors, many of whom are abutters.

The council referred the special permit application to the Zoning Subcommittee for additional review.