Ray Ray’s Car Wash is seeking a variance to bring its upcoming location in Evans further underway.
Earlier this month, Raymerica LLC, the company that owns the burgeoning car wash chain, submitted a request to the Columbia County Planning Department to remove the maximum front setback requirement at 531 Rountree Way, the site of its upcoming drive-thru car wash.
The variance would be to allow the owners to remove a storage building from the final plan, deemed unnecessary in the latest design of car wash. An earlier version included the building to meet the minimum and maximum setback requirements along Rountree Road, according to the addendum document included with the variance request.
Ray Ray’s Car Wash, launched by business partners Gary Simpson and Raymond Carnes, opened its first location in Augusta, on Cabela Drive, in spring of 2023. By then, they had already applied to rezone eight parcels, totaling about three acres, along the intersection of Rountree Way and Riverwatch Parkway to build a second location.
The Board of Commissioners (BOC) voted the item down in May, before Raymerica returned with the rezoning request that November, with a variance request in tow seeking to reduce the required 50-foot buffer from neighboring residential property. The property was rezoned from Single-family Residential (R-2) to General Commercial (C-2) when the BOC voted to approve the requests in January of 2024.
The Columbia County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the latest variance request during its meeting on Feb. 20.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
