Is Springfield Ready for a Car Wash?

[Johnny]

that's good news! Can't wait to see the improvements to the neighborhood!

[CS Foltz]

This is your typical one small step at a time............congrats to Mr Jones and all I have to say is "Charge"!

[chris farley]

Although I spoke against this, I fear rented land and if he will get a return on his money I do not know if there are enough cars around here to give him a "profit"  but, the result was a win win for everyone.  Mr Jones gets his chance and the nighborhood is protected by the conditions, to which, he readily agreed.

[jason_contentdg]

Although I spoke against this, I fear rented land and if he will get a return on his money I do not know if there are enough cars around here to give him a "profit"  but, the result was a win win for everyone. Mr Jones gets his chance and the nighborhood is protected by the conditions, to which, he readily agreed.

Which was always going to be the case once we got involved...I talked to planning to make sure those conditions were going to be put in in case this was going to be approved and also made sure Silas knew he had to step up to the plate to make those changes.  He understood and knew that this was his last chance. 

This is where I don't get all of the fear that was drawn up about him operating the car wash as is.  This could have been discussed between the property owner and SPAR beforehand, instead of just saying, "It's against the overlay."

[fsujax]

Can you just make sure he doesn't install bars, and gates across the doors and windows! that is all I ask. At least now I can get my car washed in Springfield by machine. But the guys at 8th St and Phoenix Ave also do a good job!

[jason_contentdg]

Can you just make sure he doesn't install bars, and gates across the doors and windows! that is all I ask. At least now I can get my car washed in Springfield by machine. But the guys at 8th St and Phoenix Ave also do a good job!

I don't think you have to worry about that....

[chris farley]

I really do not wish to get into a big discussion about this, I felt very good about last night, but please note SPAR said they agreed with the code decision.  What else could they do, until recent years they depended on city grants and worked closely with city agencies, how do they suddenly go against these agencies after all the work done, expecially by SPAR to get conditions in place. Work done by people trying to revive early Springfield and not the current people. What saddens me is there was a democratic discussion, points were made (be they bad or good) but once again there is so much junk slung, it is all so silly.  Incidently I thought the gentleman from code was excellent, and showed a graceful  neutrality, he is there to state the law.  I came away from the meeting feeling very good about it all.
As a point of interest, I dislike petitions, I did sign one, but the petition situation was started by the people for the car wash.  It would have been better had they shown up to speak, then again that is their perogative..
Incidently Jason your company does great work, and I believe it was that, that caused Mr. Jones achieve his goal.

[ChriswUfGator]

This is where I don't get all of the fear that was drawn up....

This could have been discussed between the property owner and SPAR beforehand, instead of just saying, "It's against the overlay."

Yeah, well. It's SPAR. What else can you say? At least they were defeated.

I'm glad Mr. Jones got his exception. This is clearly an improvement. Anyone who doesn't believe me, just go look at the surrounding properties. It's a good thing we have this website, since nobody would've known about the backroom campaign to sink the project if it weren't for MJ.

[jason_contentdg]

I really do not wish to get into a big discussion about this, I felt very good about last night, but please note SPAR said they agreed with the code decision.  What else could they do, until recent years they depended on city grants and worked closely with city agencies, how do they suddenly go against these agencies after all the work done, expecially by SPAR to get conditions in place. Work done by people trying to revive early Springfield and not the current people. What saddens me is there was a democratic discussion, points were made (be they bad or good) but once again there is so much junk slung, it is all so silly.  Incidently I thought the gentleman from code was excellent, and showed a graceful  neutrality, he is there to state the law.  I came away from the meeting feeling very good about it all.
As a point of interest, I dislike petitions, I did sign one, but the petition situation was started by the people for the car wash.  It would have been better had they shown up to speak, then again that is their perogative..
Incidently Jason your company does great work, and I believe it was that, that caused Mr. Jones achieve his goal.

Chris, thanks for the kind words and I agree with your sentiments.  Hopefully we've all learned something from this car wash chaos and can carry on with what we all want to see, revitalization.

[Springfield Girl]

[/quote]

Which was always going to be the case once we got involved...I talked to planning to make sure those conditions were going to be put in in case this was going to be approved and also made sure Silas knew he had to step up to the plate to make those changes.  He understood and knew that this was his last chance.  

This is where I don't get all of the fear that was drawn up about him operating the car wash as is.  This could have been discussed between the property owner and SPAR beforehand, instead of just saying, "It's against the overlay."
[/quote]

The fear came from the fact that Mr. Jones owned that property for 12 years and during that time it was a blighted mess. He never came to the neighborhood until after he had gone to zoning with his plans. When he did show up at a special meeting to discuss the halfway house issue it was after the fact, unannounced and unprepared. How could anyone there support the plan when he had no plan? He introduced himself and asked for support. When people asked for his drawings and proposal he had nothing to show. He stated very clearly at the hearing last night that he was ready to open in 2007 as is. That showed he had no plans to improve the site and was going to operate as is without any imput from the neighborhood. If he had gone to you guys, or anyone and gotten architectural drawings and come to the neighborhood beforehand in good faith I think he would have had a completely different reception. Trying to pulll a fast one or just thinking that opening the place in the substandard state it is in now does not show good faith towards the neighborhood in my opinion. I'm glad he's onboard now but that wasn't his intention before you guys went to him and thankfully offered help.

[jason_contentdg]

Springfield Girl, I understand your train of thought.  My comments are only in regard to the time frame of when we got involved, and made sure he knew there were items and concerns that he needed to address if he wanted to open up.  I still think there's room for community input, I wish we were able to do it before Thursday's meeting...

[ChriswUfGator]

The fear came from the fact that Mr. Jones owned that property for 12 years and during that time it was a blighted mess. He never came to the neighborhood until after he had gone to zoning with his plans. When he did show up at a special meeting to discuss the halfway house issue it was after the fact, unannounced and unprepared. How could anyone there support the plan when he had no plan? He introduced himself and asked for support. When people asked for his drawings and proposal he had nothing to show. He stated very clearly at the hearing last night that he was ready to open in 2007 as is. That showed he had no plans to improve the site and was going to operate as is without any imput from the neighborhood. If he had gone to you guys, or anyone and gotten architectural drawings and come to the neighborhood beforehand in good faith I think he would have had a completely different reception. Trying to pulll a fast one or just thinking that opening the place in the substandard state it is in now does not show good faith towards the neighborhood in my opinion. I'm glad he's onboard now but that wasn't his intention before you guys went to him and thankfully offered help.

Oh come on. You guys kept on opposing it even after he had the formal proposal drawn, and invented a rumor that it was going to be a convenience-store-in-disguise out of thin air to scare people. Only after it was obvious you'd already lost the decision did SPAR finally say 'oh yeah...we support this new business' or whatever the comment was. Just saving face.

And 'blighted'? At least it's still standing, unlike every other commercial property around it. So I guess we're back to preferring vacant lots to open businesses? I thought the "P" was for "Preservation" and the "R" was for "Revitalization"?

[Springfield Girl]

I invented no such thing as it was stated a convenience store could have been opened all along. Mr. Jones showed no good faith. He kept his property blighted for 12 years and only chose to do improvements in the 11th hour when he thought he was going to be denied. If he had intended to get drawings and improve his site he would have done it before going to zoning to ask for the exception not afterwards. I have no doubt that he would have continued on the same path he has followed for these last 12 years. He stated very clearly at the hearing last night that he was ready to open in 2007 as is. So thankfully Jason did get involved but it was never Mr. Jones intention to take that path.

[Dan B]

I dont believe anyone has claimed Silas was as pure as the driven snow, or even right on every issue. All most have called for is for SPAR to step up and attempt to help him do the right thing, rather than condemn him, without even an attempt to do so.

[Sigma]

I really do not wish to get into a big discussion about this, I felt very good about last night, but please note SPAR said they agreed with the code decision.  What else could they do, until recent years they depended on city grants and worked closely with city agencies, how do they suddenly go against these agencies after all the work done, expecially by SPAR to get conditions in place. Work done by people trying to revive early Springfield and not the current people. What saddens me is there was a democratic discussion, points were made (be they bad or good) but once again there is so much junk slung, it is all so silly.  Incidently I thought the gentleman from code was excellent, and showed a graceful  neutrality, he is there to state the law.  I came away from the meeting feeling very good about it all.
As a point of interest, I dislike petitions, I did sign one, but the petition situation was started by the people for the car wash.  It would have been better had they shown up to speak, then again that is their perogative..
Incidently Jason your company does great work, and I believe it was that, that caused Mr. Jones achieve his goal.

Chris, I think our discussion last night at 3 Layers was beneficial.  The community really should have had a roundtable discussion on the car wash as an open forum.  I am glad that you have remained rational and thoughtful through this process.  However, I see a lot of the problem with the thinking that was also present at the table last night.  

It seems that people are going to believe what they want to believe and let fear drive their points for them.  Others sitting at the table have not read the overlay, and have not done their research as to the proposals set forth.  If they had, they would have known that he was not planning on opening a typical Springfield convenience store.  

I think the discussion was good to have to once again voice different opinions.  I just wish some folks would open their minds and dig a little bit more for information before opposing a project.  While I think all of us have some fear and hesitation that Silas won't do what he says, we can't be the rulers of this person's future because of those fears.