The owners of Flyers gas station have filed an appeal of the Ceres Planning Commission’s approval of a car wash and gas station next door to them, insisting that years ago someone at City Hall promised such a use couldn’t occur in the future.
On Dec. 4 the commission voted 5-0 to approve an application to subdivide an 8.66-acre parcel at 1200 E. Whitmore Avenue west of Highway 99 into five parcels and to build a car wash on one of those new parcels and a gas station on the other. The projects are proposed for parcels fronting Whitmore Avenue west of the Flyers station while the land behind them would remain ear-marked for community commercial.
The Conditional Use Permit allows for the two-phase development, the first being a 4,000-square-foot car wash with 18 vacuum stalls; and the second phase of a 4,500-square-foot 16-pump gas station and convenience store on the other parcel. The service station is also proposed to have 17 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
Hardeep Gill, an owner of the Flyers station, notified the Courier days later that he and his father marched down to City Hall to file an appeal and fork over the $630 application fee. Their appeal to stop the development will be heard at an upcoming City Council meeting.
“We were going to buy that land in 2021 to build a car wash,” Gill told the Courier. “We had a deal to buy that land with my dad and two business partners. We went to the city to see if we could build a car wash. We spoke them, they said, we would never allow a car wash there because of the houses behind. It wouldn’t make sense environmentally, too much noise, we would just never allow it.”
The Gills were given a print-out of the allowed uses in the C-1 and C-2 zones. The businessmen informed the city that they would buy the adjacent lands to prevent another gas station from being built there but were told that wouldn’t happen because of the proximity to the Flyers. Given that information, the Gills dropped plans to buy the property “because nobody could compete with us.”
Gill could not come up with the name of the city employee who gave them the information in 2021.
“We can’t figure out who,” said Ceres City Manager Doug Dunford, who was not employed with the city in 2021. One of the Gills said it was a woman.
“The only female that would have been there was Ann Montgomery and she wouldn’t be interacting with who can build what over there. So it’s like who did he really actually talk to.”
“We’re looking into it,” he added. “I can’t find a female that was working there at the time.”
No specific date of the visit was given by the appellate.
In charge of the city of Ceres Community Development Department in 2021 was Tom Westbrook. In August 2021, Christopher Hoem took Westbrook’s place.
“I understand if you’re going to build a gas station across the street but to literally put it on the land next to my gas station that’s unheard of, man,” said Gill. “That’s like if you owned like an In-N-Out and I’m building In-N-Out next to you. It’s crazy.”
Down the street in 2019 the city did prevent the 7-Eleven project at Whitmore Avenue and Blaker Road from including a car wash. The developer Benny Singh Dhanda was told that planners had a problem with the car wash because of likely noise impacts on the residents of the neighboring Whitmore Oaks Senior complex. The car wash was dropped from plans.
