Demand for car washes is growing, but city officials say the town has too many already.
The car wash industry spiked during the pandemic, and is growing approximately five percent every year. The industry was valued at nearly $35 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach approximately $49 billion by 2030.
Bloomington has eight car washes, with a ninth being built on the west side of town by Culver’s. One of those eight, Crew Car Wash, opened a new location last month on the east side by College Mall.
The city wants fewer car washes
Despite growing demand, city officials think there are too many car washes in Bloomington. David Hittle, director of planning and transportation for the city, said car washes detract from the city’s goal of improving aesthetics. He says car washes are also “sprawl contributors,” encouraging a more auto-centric culture with less biking and walking.
Ian Cassidy Tate, general manager of the east side Crew Car Wash, said they decided to open a second location in town because customers wanted increased access to a car wash across town. And the volume of traffic at their west side location grew so much that opening another one made sense.
“We felt putting another location here would not only fill a gap in just the area itself, but also just help give customers more convenient access to car washing,” he said.
Customers from the west side of town have come to the new car wash, Cassidy Tate said. So have people from Brown County, excited that a new location is closer to home for them. Cassidy Tate predicts an increase in demand as more people want to take pride in their vehicles and maintain their quality.
“They take pride in the ride. They want to look good,” he said. “And on top of that, too, I think a lot of people, riding around in a clean car, you feel better. I think it's an easy way to get a little disconnect from the day as well. You know, you get three, four minutes of some peace in there. Then when you leave, you got a nice, shiny car to feel good about.”
David Freeman gets his car washed every week. While he’s been going to the west side Crew Car Wash, the new east side one is closer to where he lives. He doesn’t think any more car washes than the eight are needed.
“I think it's a good number,” Freeman said. “I don't think we need any more than that.”
Hittle says, “They (car washes) provide zero to few jobs, and the jobs they do provide are really low paying,” he said. “There are environmental concerns with chemicals and water runoff and vehicles idling and traffic, they're aesthetically not things that many people want to look at.”
But, if a developer looking to open a car wash is properly zoned, Hittle said, they don’t have to go through public hearings to get permission to build. They only need to get major site plan approval through the plan commission, so it’s hard to limit their ability to build.
“There's really not an option for the plan commission to deny it if they meet all of the ordinance requirements for building: height and setbacks, dimensional requirements and things like that,” Hittle said. “So, if it's allowed by the zoning, it's really just a matter of getting your permits.”
Among other things, car washes can be built in mixed-use medium and mixed-use corridor districts. Mixed-used medium districts often have neighborhoods and medium-scaled commercial properties within them. Mixed-used corridor districts have more big-box stores along major roadways.
After getting complaints from citizens about the high number of car washes in the area, Hittle said the city is working on an amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance that would take away mixed-used medium districts as an option for car washes. The amendment will go to the Plan Commission for public hearing later this month.
“They're still allowed in the city, but we're wanting to corral them in an area where they might be more appropriate,” he said. “Think of the big streets where you're going to find your bigger stores, so on the east side and the west side where the big box stores are, not that we're huge fans of that kind of commercial environment anyway, but, in the meantime, it's reasonable to try to point these types of uses in that direction.”
Hittle said three new car washes have opened in the last year alone.
“It is kind of an anomaly,” he said. “I've never heard anybody say, ‘Man, I wish we had more car washes around.’ We get lots of complaints, but none of them have ever been why don't we have more car washes.”
Addressing city concerns, competing in a hot market
Cassidy Tate said Crew Car Wash has systems in place to minimize the environmental impact, which is a concern for the city. They have electrical devices that minimize the amount of electricity used when starting the equipment. They also have a retention pond on site, and reuse water in portions of the wash.
“A lot of the earlier portions where it just needs rinsed off, we have a water reclamation system where we're filtering it on site, cleaning out the bacteria, making sure that it's sanitized and clean enough that it's not going to cause any health hazards,” he said. “And we reuse some of that in the wash.”
When it comes to jobs, Cassidy Tate said he’s always looking to fill positions at their two locations. He is also willing to work with university students.
“We would love to have the opportunity to work with students that are looking for some kind of business management experience to join, maybe into our Fast Track manager program,” he said.
Cassidy Tate thinks the high number of car washes in Bloomington helps promote competition and pushes him to do his best. He competes by sticking to the company’s brand promise: clean, fast and friendly.
Crew Car Wash is based in Fishers. With the growing market, Cassidy Tate said the company is expanding to other states.
