The Abridged version:
- City of Sacramento officials reversed course last week and paved the way for a new Quick Quack Car Wash on Florin Road in South Sacramento.
- The project faced opposition from the planning commission, the city’s staff and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, but the car wash applicants appealed.
- The City Council directed staff to recommend approving the car wash after hearing an appeal that included a procession of school-age children from the community.
A dozen students from South Sacramento, some as young as fifth grade, arrived at Sacramento City Hall two months ago, urging their local leaders to allow a new car wash in their neighborhood.
The procession, it turns out, was part of an unusual appeal by Quick Quack Car Wash, a Rocklin-based company with hundreds of locations throughout the country.
The company proposed adding a new location near the corner of Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard, but it faced opposition. Sacramento’s in-house urban planning staff, the city’s Planning and Design Commission and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District all rejected the plans.
The car wash was proposed for an empty lot at 3815 Florin Road, an address less than a mile from a light rail stop. City staffers urged that a less car-centric use, such as housing, would be a better fit for the site.
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The students who spoke in support of the car wash were organized by a Quick Quack communications consultant, who took them on a trip to the company’s Center of Excellence in Roseville, according to public records and a chaperone from the trip, and helped them with their public comments.
After a hearing that included testimonies from the students who attended the trip, the Sacramento City Council reversed course.
Florin Road site faced opposition
Quick Quack proposed its new car wash for a space that once housed a car dealership but has been empty since 2013. Public records show that the company first applied to build on the site in 2024.
When the new car wash was slated to go before the city’s planning commission back in February, city staffers recommended that the commission reject the project. A staff presentation on the project pointed to four other car washes along the Florin Road corridor and advocated housing or transit-oriented development instead.
During public hearings, representatives for the company pointed to upgrades in the project plans, such as improved sidewalks, new landscaping and decorative stone walls that would adorn the edges of the car wash.
Field trip to the Center of Excellence
Quick Quack’s application for the car wash included an “outreach memo” compiled by Kim Garrett, the owner of SOI Communications.
The memo describes outreach to 107 different contacts over the course of a year and says that the outreach team “did not identify any pattern or trend of opposition.” The memo also describes a positive interview with the leader of a community group, the Rose Family Center, who encouraged a tour for students.
“The project applicant hosted a field trip to Quick Quack’s Center of Excellence, which included presentations by an engineer, the project architect, regional operations manager, the availability of job training and the company’s need for building and construction trades,” the memo states.
Toni Johnson, then a volunteer with the Rose Family Center, said she also attended the field trip. She said many of the students were part of Phoenix on the Rise, an after-school group led by the Rose Family Center.
Johnson told Abridged that Garrett helped organize the trip to the Quick Quack facility.
“She provided the transportation and got the students ready for the presentation with cue cards to make,” Johnson said.
Garrett did not respond to questions about the Florin Road site and City Council hearings, and representatives from Quick Quack did not respond to requests for comment.
Nine of those students appeared before the planning commission at its Feb. 26 meeting, along with Garrett.
“Hear my voice,” said one speaker, who identified himself as a student from Luther Burbank High School. “We want those jobs in our neighborhood, so please support this application.”
“Hear my voice,” began another student’s testimony. “Quick Quack is a good community neighbor. … They support food banks, schools and little leagues.”
At the end of the hearing, the planning commission ultimately voted 12-1 to reject the Florin Road project.
Students provide testimony — again
When the project geared up for another hearing before the Sacramento City Council on April 28, Garrett and a dozen students with Phoenix on the Rise appeared before the council.
One speaker told the council she was a fifth grade student at Parkway Elementary School.
“I visited a Quick Quack site to see how it’s ran and to see the technology behind the wash,” she told the council.
“My favorite part of career day was lunch. When you take a teenager to a nice restaurant and tell them to order anything, including desserts, it’s a moment they’ll remember,” she said, before urging the council to “vote yes on Quick Quack.”
Councilmember Caity Maple, whose district includes the Florin Road site, urged the rest of the council to vote in favor of the project. Maple declined request for comment and referred to the statements she made at the April meeting.
“This lot’s been vacant a long time,” she said at the time. “While there are many things I would like to see on the lot that would include everything from housing to a park … I also live in reality where I don’t own that lot.”
She added that the issue is “a complicated one” but noted the need to focus on economic development. Maple also said an additional 13 empty acres near the car wash site are empty.
The rest of the dais deferred to her, saying she was best positioned to understand the needs of her district.
With an 8-0 vote, they sided with Quick Quack’s appeal and instructed city staff to return with an agenda item recommending approval of the car wash.
When the Florin Road car wash came before the council again June 16, council members approved the project after a public hearing that lasted about 2 minutes.
No one spoke on the item during the brief public comment period.
The council passed it unanimously.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, healthcare and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.