MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP, MI - On Wednesday, June 23, the Zoning Board of Appeals held a meeting to discuss the proposal for a car wash facility, located at the southeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Dawn Avenue, where Paul Revere’s Tavern was once located.

The construction plan was previously approved by the Planning Commission back on May 10, 2021, but the previous applicant, Keith Chapman, who put in the original proposal came to the board with a new construction plan, which had three new variances.

The applicant was requesting to shorten the front yard set back from 100ft to 80.8 ft, the parking lot landscape buffer from 20ft to 3.8ft, and the building perimeter landscape buffer from 4ft to 0ft in order to allocate space for other sections of the build which needed more square footage.

When asked why they decided to go with this new plan applicant Representative Erin McMachen had this to say.

"We looked, like I said, about putting it on the western side, and the conflict there again was traffic and, you know, It is fifteen required stacking spaces before entering the car wash, that's unachievable if we go with that route as well. This layout provided the furthest set back, as well as, meeting as many of the ordinance criteria as we could with the shape of this parcel."

After careful review and consideration, the board decided to not approve the applicant’s variance proposal due to many concerns with the variances requested and possible negative outcomes. Although, the applicant was granted one more chance to reapply in the future for another variance proposal.