After jousting with the village over plans to expand and renovate his Ogden Avenue car wash, the business’ owner has hit upon a plan that looks as if it will meet with approval by Brookfield trustees.
Both Village President Michael Garvey and village staff indicated that with the revisions to the plans for Brookfield Express Car Wash, 9545 Ogden Ave., the village would attempt to get the project on a fast track for completion.
“I know in the end we’ll have a project we can be proud of,” Garvey said.
William Klump, the owner of Brookfield Express Car Wash since 1995, has been tweaking his plans for over a year in order to garner the village’s approval. After being rebuffed by the village board with regard to zoning variations he sought in 2008, Klump returned to the village with a planned unit development proposal in February, which the Plan Commission recommended for approval.
However, the village board again shot down the plan after the village planner and the director of the building department said the plan did not meet requirements for storm water management.
With Klump unwilling to spend what he estimated to be $200,000 to construct a storm drainage system on the building site, it looked like the improvement plan would be ditched.
But village staff approached Klump to see if the two sides could work out a compromise plan, which was unveiled at Monday night’s meeting of the village board’s committee of the whole.
“If not for staff I wouldn’t be here,” Klump said. “They reached out to me and came with a workable idea.”
Instead of constructing an underground system for detaining storm water and slowly releasing it into the Ogden Avenue storm sewer, the new plan is a green solution using a larger landscaped area, referred to in the plan as a bioswale, to capture storm water.
A trench drain along Ogden Avenue will funnel storm water to a 1,400-square-foot area principally along the Blanchan Avenue frontage featuring deep-rooted native plants.
According to an analysis done by village staff, the bioswale will retain enough water to exceed the volume mandated by the Cook County Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
In order to accommodate the bioswale in the plan, Klump had to shift the drive aisles for the new, larger automatic car wash bay and eliminated one parking stall for vacuuming cars. The plans for the car wash building did not change.
The facility will include an 80-foot long automatic car wash bay along the south side of the property and the entire facility will be remodeled and given a modern look.
“This dramatically changes the project and makes a difference to me,” said Trustee Michael Towner, one of the trustees who publicly voiced disapproval of previous plans for the car wash.
Keith Sbiral, Brookfield’s assistant village manager and director of planning and building, said the changes represent a triumph of the planning process for Brookfield.
“This really is going to be a benefit to the village and is a good standard for planned developments, to look at these storm water issues and come up with creative solutions.”
The village board will officially vote to approve Klump’s preliminary planned development plan at their meeting on July 27. No trustees expressed reservations about the revised plan.
After that, the project will go back to the Plan Commission for final plan approval, which again needs signoff from the village board in order to make the renovated car wash a reality.
However, Sbiral said he’ll encourage Klump to apply for building permits when he submits the plan for final approval.
“Once the board votes, he will be able to begin immediately,” Sbiral said.
As for Klump, he said that despite the long process, he was happy with the final solution.
“I’m building a better project than I ever anticipated,” Klump said.
