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Frustration came to the forefront last week as Westlake Village City Council members listened for nearly one-and-a-half hours to arguments relating to mobile car wash and mobile auto detailing operations within the city. Currently illegal under the city's zoning ordinance, this segment of the fast growing personalized service business has been on the receiving end of heavy criticism from fixed-base car wash operators. Permanent site car wash owners claim unfair competition and unequal administration of the law since they must operate under rigid environmental rules. The mobile operators are seeking regulation so they may operate in a legally clear environment. A similar battle has been underway in neighboring Thousand Oaks, although a Conejo Chamber of Commerce-led study group is recommending approval of mobile car wash operators who meet city requirements for licensing. Robert McCord, Jr., attorney with Taylor McCord in Ventura, representing three of the fixed operators, cited various environmental codes as reasons to keep the mobile operators out of the city. McCord said that Westlake Lake was the first place these runoffs hit and mentioned the alleged carcinogenic qualities of some of the cleaning chemicals he claimed were is use. "You are impacting your city in a major way," McCord said. "You're doing terrible violence to your zoning ordinance if you allow this to happen." Reprinted from The Acorn, May 5, 1993. |
Mobile
car wash issue vexes the city council