ST. CHARLES – At X-Sport Fitness you can ride a stationary bicycle, play basketball, climb a rock wall and pump iron.
Soon you'll be able to ... wash your car?
Aldermen at Monday's City Council meeting approved a special-use permit that will allow X-Sport Fitness to put in a car wash.
The city approved a self-service car wash for what is now the fitness center's overflow parking lot at 230 N. Randall Road, said Matthew O'Rourke, planner for St. Charles.
The owners of X-Sport will remove 56 spaces along the east and south edges of the overflow lot.
"The car wash will be open to gym membership but will also be available to nonmembers for a fee," O'Rourke added.
According to the application for the special-use permit. The average wash time would be 3 1/2 to 6 minutes. The average number of cars to be washed each hour would be 12 to 16. Long lines are not anticipated. Car-wash patrons don't like to wait in line and will come back when it's more convenient, the document said.
"I think it's an innovative use," Mayor Don DeWitte said. "Right now, that spot is a no-man's land. It's tucked away. It doesn't take up frontage along a major road, which we like saving for other bigger revenue-generating uses."
X-Sport Fitness opened in 2003.