Letter to the Editor: Using car washes as example, Flagstaff’s codes put into question

A friend texted me last week, “Zak, they’re building another car wash in town—what gives?” It’s a fair question. There are already more than a dozen car washes in Flagstaff. How can yet another be an effective business strategy?

So, what is required to build a car wash? When I don’t understand what the city is doing, I go back to the code. The first clue is that car washes are allowed by right in all commercial zones, meaning no rezoning or special approvals. But the real answer is parking.