The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved rezoning and variances for properties on Roundtree Way and Riverwatch Parkway to allow for Ray Ray’s Car Wash to come to the location.
Robert Russ, who has lived next to these properties since 1996, was against the rezoning, citing concerns about noise and traffic.
“it’s already a really congested area over there with the school on Roundtree Way and it’s my understanding that’s where they’re going to enter at,” Russ said.
Commissioner Gary Richardson asked Russ if he had been approached about selling his property, with Russ stating he received a letter with what he called a “frivolous offer” placed in his mailbox and something taped to his door, but no one has approached him directly.
Gary Simpson said when the first letter was sent to Russ, he sent a text to the realtor stating he had been offered more than what they were offering and “you couldn’t buy a tent in Columbia County for $250,000.” He added that Russ did not respond the second time around to the $250,000.
Russ said he would sell his house for the right price, but he wouldn’t incur the cost of moving and buying something less than what he has now because his property is in a convenient location.
“Why would I want to give my residence up just because they want to put a car wash there?” Russ said “Would I sell it? I would absolutely sell it for the right price, but I’m not going to sell it for $250,000. I would be a fool.”
Ray Carnes, with the car wash, said the car wash will have equipment that is very quiet and that the services offered don’t exist in Columbia County. He added there will be the buffers required by Columbia County.
“Our car wash has what’s a conveyer belt, a magic carpet if you will, the easiest way to describe it is like a belt like you would put groceries on in a grocery store and that way we can accommodate … large work trucks that other car washes are able to…,” Carnes said.
Commissioners unanimously voted for the rezoning of the properties from R-2 (Single Family Residential) to C-2 (General Commercial) and voted 4-0 with Richardson abstaining for the vote for the accompanying variances.
“I voted for the rezoning of the property to be commercial and then when the variances for the car wash, I did not vote for those,” Richardson said. “I didn’t think the variances needed to be in place for there. But as far as the commercial zoning, I think the commercial zoning for that area, I think the whole piece needs to be commercial. Again, I wasn’t in favor of the variances.”
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
