AURORA | For nearly two years, Gleam Carwash has worked to make itself part of the fabric of northeast Aurora, offering jobs, services and building connections with neighbors.
That sense of stability was shaken last year when plans emerged for a QuikTrip “Bubble Bath” car wash just half a mile away on East Colfax Avenue near Airport Boulevard.
What started as a routine business development approval project escalated into a months-long land-use battle, pitting a national convenience store chain against a small-business owner who warned that the new car wash would put her out of business.
“What’s proposed would be the tenth car wash within a two‑mile radius. That level of saturation should give all of us pause,” Gleam car wash owner Emilie Barratta said.
It all ended in a loss for both sides Monday night at the end of a marathon city council meeting, when only half of the Bubble Bath plan was approved, halting development only temporarily.
Residents, planners, lawyers and city council members were drawn into a debate over neighborhood impacts, government intervention in the free market, and the extent of the city’s discretion in approving development.
“This is not about asking for special treatment,” Barratta said. “This is about fairness and the rule of law and to ensure that big, multi‑billion‑dollar businesses get treated the same as the rest of us.”
Representatives for QuikTrip insisted on the same thing, equal and fair treatment. Even members of city council who said they were fans of Gleam agreed with city planning staff and city lawyers that the city had no legal justification for denying QuikTrip the right to open a car wash on land with their gas station.
The plan was tripped up Monday by overturning the city’s planning commission approval of the site plan, which details how the car wash would be built and operated.
City officials say the measure now might go back to the planning department, and QuikTrip could amend that site plan and move forward. Either side of the argument could seek court action in the case. None of the parties involved made it clear what is certain to happen next.
Aurora residents became invested after a Gleam employee, a young man named Aiden Riggs, stole the hearts of community members at a city council meeting in November, when he spoke along with many other Gleam supporters about how valued he feels working the Barratta.
“Gleam believes in me, and that makes me believe in myself,” Riggs, a neurodivergent employee at Gleam, told the city council and audience, which gave him a standing ovation.
The plan for Bubble Bath was initially approved by the city’s Planning Commission in October. But in December, city council voted to call it back up for reevaluation after Barratta emailed concerns and alleged code violations built into the Bubble Bath plan to city staff, the City Manager Jason Batchelor and each city council member.
Late Monday night into early Tuesday morning, the conditional use plan of QuikTrip’s Bubble Bath was approved by city council, but the site plan was denied, causing both Gleam and QuikTrip to essentially lose in many ways.
Lawmakers approved the conditional use of the carwash but denied the site plan due to concerns about the potential adverse impacts on local neighborhoods.
The majority of city council members voted to deny the site plan. Council members Curtis Gardner, Angela Lawson and Francoise Bergan voted to approve the measure, while the rest of city council, including Mayor Mike Coffman, opposed the carwash site plan.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said that, without an approved site plan, construction cannot begin.
Lawmakers were unable to deny the conditional use because it comes with rigid criteria, which he and city planning officials said QuikTrip met, while the site plan is more open for interpretation, Schulte said.
“In every property case, especially in a site plan evaluation, it’s those subjective factors that can produce a difference of opinion,” Schute said.
This means QuikTrip can still build a car wash, but they would just need to modify their site plan.
“While we are disappointed that the site plan was not approved, we remain committed to working collaboratively with city staff and the surrounding community to address the concerns raised during the meeting,” QuikTrip spokesperson Aisha Jefferson said in a statement this week.
What specifically must be addressed wasn’t made clear at the council meeting Monday.
Schulte said QuikTrip has two other options if it chooses not to update the site plan. It can appeal the decision in district court or abandon the car wash proposal.
Turning back from building a car wash on the site isn’t an option, company officials said.
“Our goal has always been to bring a well designed high quality development to this corridor,” QuikTrip officials said in their statement. “And we will continue evaluating our next steps to ensure the project aligns with both city requirements and neighborhood expectations.”
Barratta said she disagrees with Schulte’s interpretation of what council is allowed to approve as far as conditional use, and she thinks the alleged site plan code violations should have been enough for council to deny the conditional use as well.
“The immediate next steps are to write a thank you note to everyone at council and to send a letter to planning and the city attorney, asking for a better explanation of why some of the many code violations embedded in the first site plan were allowed to remain,” Barratta said.
The city’s Planning Commission and City Council need to determine just how many fossil fuel dispensers the city really needs and their density. Given the number of EVs and Hybrids I see on Aurora’s streets, I would think that covering intersection corners with gas stations was excessive. City planners tout a walkable community. How many folks walk from home to get gas or run through a carwash?