Car Wash: Danger Ahead
A for-sale sign sways in the wind outside the shuttered Star Room nightclub on Montauk Highway in Wainscott. The apparent lack of activity there, however, belies what is going on behind the scenes: A dangerous proposal to build a car wash on the roughly two-acre site is working its way through East Hampton Town offices.
Extreme caution is needed on this application, especially considering how badly officials have already, and for years, allowed helter-skelter development along the Wainscott commercial strip. We hope the town board can find a way to step in, perhaps seeking to use the community preservation fund to buy the parcel and restore it to a natural state.
Despite the assurances of the backers of the Golden Carwash, as it would be called, it would be a disaster, and not just for Wainscott. The car wash would be on a section of Montauk Highway that is already the single most-congested in town, making it almost inconceivable that the application could receive serious consideration.
Town planners have said that at minimum a thorough study of its effects on traffic must be prepared. For example, though the car wash as planned could accommodate 18 vehicles queued on the property, its capacity would be 125 vehicles per hour, though only about half that number would be expected, even during peak operation. Just think of all the idling vehicles along the side of the highway. Does the town really want to encourage that? We doubt it.
As to ecological impacts, statements that the car wash’s wastewater would be entirely contained on-site are hard to believe. Since the land is squarely within the Georgica Pond watershed, the greatest degree of scrutiny — and pointed skepticism toward its backers’ promises — is warranted.
Richard P. Myers Jr., the chairman of the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board, recently reminded other officials that the property is part of the western gateway to East Hampton Town and that any decision for its reuse should wait until the completion of a new hamlet study, which is under way. In addition to traffic and the environment, his concerns include noise, light, and air pollution, as well as the effects on nearby residential neighborhoods centered on Cowhill, Wainscott-Northwest, and East Gate Roads.
The “land is directly over our watershed area and serious runoff could occur from usage as well as drainage from storms,” he wrote, adding that the “vista entering the Town of East Hampton in Wainscott needs cautious study.” We strongly agree, especially after the HomeGoods store debacle, in which an outsize building was allowed to go up a few short steps away from the edge of the highway pavement.
The East Hampton Town Board should in general be paying more attention to the effects of commercial redevelopment. Consider for a moment the pace at which Montauk is changing. The various studies the town has ordered, which might at some point recommend zoning changes, are not coming quickly enough to head off a number of troublesome proposals. Given the pace of change and the vast sums of money flowing into town, a temporary moratorium on certain nonresidential projects appears to be the only option.
The changes that poorly understood development can bring are apt to last forever. Properly managing those changes — and in some cases just saying no — should be at the top of our leaders’ priorities. Some years ago, a rallying cry of local Democrats was “Save what’s left!” It is time that was heard again, and Wainscott and the Georgica Pond watershed are a fine place to start.