Tough luck, mutts.
Your proposed doggy wash is “NOT identified as a permitted use in (the Planned Development District) and it is certainly NOT viewed as an accessory use that is customarily associated with a car wash facility.”
What’s all that mean? No doggy wash, at least for now, at the Splash Car Wash at 376 Bridgeport Ave.
The dog wash was essentially a large sink with a hose to spray down dogs. Click here for more details about the proposal.
However, a consultant for the Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission said the doggy wash isn’t specifically listed as a permitted use or an accessory use for the property.
Splash’s Planned Development District was “established for the specific use, and only that use, as an enclosed car wash facility,” consultant Anthony J. Panico wrote in a memo to the commission Feb. 9.
Splash could still get the OK for the pet washing stations, but only if the company petitions the commission to amend the rules governing the Planned Development District.
Splash District Manager Jason Frank said Thursday that he plans to file such an application “within the next 30 days.”
“I’m planning on being back in front of them for a public hearing before spring,” he said. “It’s a bigger hurdle, but I’m going to try.”
Commission Chair Ruth Parkins said Thursday that while members of the commission like the doggy wash idea, that was before they realized it was in a Planned Development District.
Parkins was out of town for the January meeting, but after she returned and listened to the tapes, she asked Panico to draft the memo.
Frank then withdrew the application because success was out of the question, according to Parkins.
“If we had gone through the process, we would have had to deny it,” she said.
Dog washes are becoming an increasingly popular accessory in car washes, according to Professional Carwashing and Detailing, an industry publication.
“Economically, it makes sense,” Debra Gorgos, the publication’s editor, said. “Pet washes are becoming an additional profit center for car washes.”
