City of Harlingen will not put hold on new car washes

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The City of Harlingen has decided it will not put a hold on the construction of car washes opening throughout the city.

A City Commissioners meeting was held Wednesday night to let residents voice their opinions on a controversial topic-car washes opening on main streets.

"I am a little disappointed because I feel that this was a way that we could respond to some of the citizens of Harlingen," said Rene Perez, Harlingen City Commissioner for District 5. "They have a legitimate concern about too many car washes and the safety issues that go along with it."

The City of Harlingen Mayor, Norma Sepulveda feels the ordinance was not presented to the commission as a safety concern.

"Unfortunately, this wasn't presented in a way, I don't think, to the commission that really posed a safety concern," said Sepulveda. "It seemed more so just folks in our community that just don't want to see more car washes in the community."

Sepulveda added she was disappointed residents chose to voice their opinions through social media instead of attending the meeting.

"What I saw here today is that none of those folks really came out to really advocate in support of this ordinance and it's important."

Although the ordinance fell through, Mayor Sepulveda has proposed a separate ordinance that will be discussed at the next meeting making stricter rules for opening a car wash.

"I have proposed a separate ordinance that we'll see here at the next meeting to potentially utilize our SUP system, which is a special use permit, so for car washes, for folks that want to open a car wash they'd have to go through this process in order to open in Harlingen," said Sepulveda.