A controversial plan to build a car wash near the Asylum Lake Preserve may have a path forward.
The wooded land that borders the preserve along Stadium Drive is owned by Haji Tehrani, CEO of carwash chain Drive and Shine. In 2020, the city denied his request to change the property’s zoning from residential to commercial. Preservationists, climate activists and some neighbors opposed his plan to build a car wash on the site.
Now city planners propose rezoning two of the property’s three parcels as commercial. City planner Christina Anderson said that the zoning change is not a direct response to requests by Tehrani. She said the city’s master plan, Imagine Kalamazoo 2025, has always identified the parcel as suitable for commercial zoning, based on its proximity to the highway and the heavily developed Stadium Drive.
“The future land use plan says this area is appropriate for commercial,” she said. “We’re updating the zoning code because the zoning code is supposed to be responsive to the future land use plan.”
Imagine Kalamazoo 2025 was adopted in 2017 after input from the public. City planners are reconsidering the zoning of almost 18,000 parcels throughout the city.
But Asylum Lake Preservation Association co-chair John Kreuzer remains concerned the ecological impact of any development, especially something as large as a Drive & Shine carwash.
“If that property ends up being developed, I believe that there’s better and appropriate uses that will lessen any potential impact on Kalamazoo’s largest green space,” said Kreuzer. “It is a preserve, not a park. A preserve is much different than a park.”
City planners will present the proposed zoning changes at a Planning Commission meeting Thursday April 6. The city will hold three meetings in April and early May to receive public input on rezoning.
