SNOW HILL – Plans are underway for the construction of a car wash on Route 50 outside of Berlin.
The Worcester County Planning Commission last week reviewed a sketch plan for Zoom Car Wash. Developers plan to bring the membership-model car wash to a vacant lot in front of Home Depot.
“There’s not many car washes around,” attorney Hugh Cropper said. “We wanted to come in and get your thoughts.”
Developer Charles Holland told the commission he had a car wash location in Salisbury but that he wanted to build a larger one at the site on Route 50, as he thought it would be a great complement to the area.
“This would be almost the largest car wash on the East Coast,” he said.
He told the commission that what made his car wash appealing was that it offered customers the ability to become a member. As members, they’re entitled to one car wash a day and have free access to vacuums. Holland said that when he took over the car wash in Salisbury in October, it had 475 members. It now has 1,500 members.
“It’s a great selling point,” he said. “Obviously we bring something the market’s asking for.”
The six-bay car wash, which would feature 33 parking spaces and access to self-serve vacuum stations, would be located on a 3.5-acre lot just east of Taylor Bank in the area in front of Home Depot.
Engineer John Salm said the site would be heavily landscaped and would use roughly 90% recycled water.
“Only a small percentage of the water is new water — when you have the final rinse,” he said. “That’s good for everybody. It’s good for the environment, it’s really good for the person that has to buy the EDUs also.”
Holland assured the commission he wanted to build a quality project.
“We’re not sparing any expense, inside or outside the building,” he said. “I’m a contractor by trade so we work in this area a lot. We know what the expectations are.”
The project, which will be evaluated by the Worcester County Technical Review Committee, is expected to return to the planning commission this fall for site plan approval.
The planning commission last week also reapproved a large solar energy system at 9440 Whaleyville Road. Power from the project, which was initially approved in 2019, will be sold to the PJM Grid. When asked about the size of the solar array, Finn McCabe of Ground Star Energy said it would be similar to the solar array already located on Whaleyville Road.
“The project on Route 50 that powers Ocean City is a 10-megawatt project,” he said. “This is a 1.3-megawatt project so it is significantly smaller. This is more comparable to the project further down Whaleyville Road.”
