Valatie OKs plan to wash the car, grab a bite

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VALATIE–The village Zoning Board of Appeals approved a special use permit for BJ Cantele to put a self-serve carwash on the property shared with what was the Valkin restaurant. The Valkin building will remain and plans call for it to open again as a restaurant. The carwash bays will be behind the building with an entrance from Route 9/Kinderhook Street.

The Valatie Planning Board also approved of the site plan for the carwash at the November 1 joint meeting. There was some discussion about hours operation and plantings to screen the carwash from the neighbors.

The final agreement was that the carwash bays people can operate by themselves and self-serve car vacuums will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Originally Mr. Cantele wanted them to be open 24 hours a day. The board had discussed 6 a.m. to midnight. The family that owns the two houses right next door to the Valkin property on Route 9 suggested an earlier closing time during the public hearing on the project held during the meeting.

Mr. Cantele told the board that the machines used at the carwash are extremely expensive. “Every car coming in helps,” he said of off-setting the cost.

There will not be staff at the site but the plan includes security cameras, Mr. Cantele said. He and his son James Cantele, who were both at last Wednesday’s meeting, stressed that in Greenport they have several families that live on the property line of the carwash and they have never had a complaint about the noise. “We have babies on our property line,” Mr. Cantele said of the Greenport site, which is open 24 hours.

The hours were the major concern for most of the ZBA board members and when Mr. Cantele agreed to closing at 11 p.m. they agreed to the special use permit for the site, which is in a mixed residential and commercial use zone on Route 9. Across the street from the proposed carwash is Bagel Tyme café and the Val Kin Carwash, which is staffed.

BJ Cantele first came to the Valatie Village Board in 2015 to ask for support to put a carwash on the site. The plan presented to Planning Board and ZBA has changed over time from taking the Valkin building down to reopening it. The boards also had concerns over traffic, sound, use of village water and sewer, and the possibility of historical artifacts being found at the site.

At this meeting, all the Planning Board members voted to approve the site plan and all ZBA members but one voted to approve the permit. The one ZBA member abstained since he only recently was appointed to the board.

Construction on the carwash will mostly likely not start until next year.

To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com

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