DARIEN, CT — Cloud 10, a smart and automatic car wash chain with locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, is looking to open a 5,150-square-foot facility at 54 Boston Post Road, the former site of Bertucci’s, which closed in 2022.
The Darien Planning & Zoning Commission held a public hearing on the application last week. The meeting was held at Darien Town Hall and broadcast via Darien TV79. The public hearing can be watched on demand here.
Another iteration of the proposal was heard in November 2023 and it was approved by the town’s Architecture Review Board, but it was withdrawn in February and changed.
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The proposal includes demolishing the existing restaurant building and surface parking area and constructing a new car wash facility.
“What we’re proposing is a state-of-the-art, 21st-century car wash. Cloud 10 has built a number of these facilities across the country, and is looking to bring its flagship facility here in Darien,” said Jason Klein of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP, the attorney for the applicant.
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Klein noted several investors of Cloud 10 live in Darien, including company CEO Brendan Johnson and CFO Jeff Agosta.
“This is Brendan and Jeff’s hometown,” Klein said. “This is an important project for them, not just from a business perspective, but from a personal perspective.”
The project would remove almost 20,000 square feet of impervious surfaces at the site and replace it with landscaped areas, according to Klein, with a nearly 30-foot landscape buffer along the frontage of Boston Post Road.
Two existing curb cuts on the property will be replaced by one new curb cut on the eastern side, which will allow customers to enter and exit the property safely and conveniently, documents associated with the project say.
The existing eastern driveway would be shifted approximately 10 feet to the east to position it further away from West Norwalk Road.
“Onsite queuing lanes and the efficient operation of the proposed facility will ensure vehicles do not queue out into the Boston Post Road,” the documents noted.
Customers entering the proposed car wash via the newly proposed site drive would go into three queuing lanes that can accommodate up to 40 vehicles entirely within the property, according to submitted documents.
Cloud 10’s automated point-of-sale system will check customers in. For members of the car wash, the computer will recognize their license plate, make and model and any previous washes, which Klein said would allow for a “more efficient operation.”
Vehicles would drive through the automated belt within the building, Klein said, with about 1.5 to two minutes dedicated to each car.
“The technology that’s located within this building effectively puts a box around your vehicle, making sure that there’s no crashes or collisions within the structure,” Klein said.
Once the exterior wash is complete, customers will be able to leave the property, or they can take a right turn out of the wash and go into one of 34 vacuum spaces to clean their car’s interior.
A unique feature for the business would be a “Solar Flower” installed on the property.
“This is a feature that can track the sun throughout the day, and provide some energy for the car wash operation. I think it’s around 4,500 to 6,200 kilowatt hours annually,” Klein said. “It’s an important, I think not just a functional feature, but a symbolic feature of Cloud 10’s commitment to sustainability.”
Operating hours would be from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days per week. Security lighting on the building is required and can be dimmed.
The property currently lacks any meaningful, modern storm drainage facilities, submitted documents say, so Cloud 10 is proposing to install a stormwater system including catch basins, area drains, manholes, storm drain piping and a rain garden.
A subsurface detention system and infiltration system are also proposed, documents note.
Steve Sause from Cloud 10 Car Wash spoke about the company’s ability to recycle and reuse water.
“There is no other system like this deployed at any facility in Fairfield County, let alone the town of Darien. We use a multiple number of processes to get water clean. We don’t just separate it in settling tanks, we take that water back out and reuse it, we put it through filtration, through polishing, a variety of equipment to use the water again. It’s a resource, it’s expensive, we try to use it as little as possible,” Sause explained.
“Final rinse is done with very clean water. Certain chemistries have to be done with clean, fresh water — that’s where we end it,” Sause added. “Everything else is done with some level of recycled or rejected water that goes back through our system. We’ll have approximately 8,000 gallons underground.”
In the initial plan, Cloud 10 proposed to fund the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection with West Norwalk Road, but the CT Department of Transportation determined the signal was not warranted, said Chris Mojica, a traffic engineer with AKRF.
Cloud 10 said it would be willing to realign its driveway into the property should CTDOT approve the traffic signal in the future.
“I’ve never seen an applicant bend over backwards the way these folks have to try and deliver the most that they can on this property. I think the fact they’re willing to make that modification is important and it’s powerful,” Klein said.
To improve safety around the site, Mojica said CTDOT has agreed to speak with Connecticut Transit about moving two existing bus stops near the Boston Post Road/West Norwalk Road intersection about 300 feet to the east where there is a marked crosswalk and traffic signal.
The commission will reexamine the application in September.
Watch the July 16 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting on Darien TV79.
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