Car Wash Undergoes Sound Tests

Since the beginning of this year, the City of Los Angeles has been responding to noise complaints about Palisades Gas and Wash, located above the corner at La Cruz and Alma Real. Jay Paternostro, a noise inspector in the Dept. of Building and Safety, has taken sound measurements at several La Cruz businesses, and subsequently, Palisades Gas and Wash operations manager John Zisk has made modifications to some of the car wash’s machinery. Zisk recently told the Palisadian-Post that after ‘just under $10,000 worth of modifications,’ Palisades Gas and Wash is now in compliance with the city’s noise code. However, Paternostro was due to recheck his latest sound measurement on August 25, according to Pacific Palisades Community Council area representative Stuart Muller. The latest sound reading, taken August 19 at Palisades Garden Caf’, was corrupted by construction at the Village School annex on the opposite corner, Paternostro told Muller. Palisades Garden Caf’, a new complainant, is located on La Cruz across the street from the busy car wash. The first formal complaint with the city was filed in February by Palisadian Elliott Zorensky, who owns the building where Sabrina Nails & Spa and Palisades Garden Caf’ are located. Zorensky’s UDO Realty office is situated between the Palisades Garden Caf’ and Blue Cross Pet Hospital. Recalling what the noise level was like when he first moved into the building four years ago, Zorensky said, ‘You couldn’t talk to someone without screaming. I couldn’t open the door and let air blow through.’ Zorensky said that every time the inspector came to the site, he was out of the office, and therefore did not get a chance to speak with him. ‘The initial [sound measurement] readings were close to 90 decibels, but I’ve been told that the sound measurement is now within ‘acceptable’.’ The legal sound level for the car wash business between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. is 65 decibels (dB), with a 1-decibel variable, said Muller. He’s been gathering information for his Car Wash Noise Committee and will give a report at tonight’s Community Council meeting. ‘We started the modifications within two weeks after we got cited earlier this year,’ said Zisk, who focused on alleviating the sound the dryer makes when it blows water off the cars. ‘Both the inspector and Stuart Muller understood that it was going to take time to try different remedies.’ Zisk replaced the older air compressors with two new high-performance ones that run quieter and less frequently, and put an insulated duct on the dryer for intake of air, to muffle the noise of the motor. Now, depending on the results of Paternostro’s sound measurement yesterday, Palisades Gas and Wash may or may not be in compliance. Zisk said if the business is not in compliance, further modifications (costing about $5,000) would be made to the motor to make it run slower. A last resort, he said, would be to enclose the car-wash tunnel, but this would be ‘five to 10 times more expensive.’ Muller, meanwhile, is suggesting a facelift. His committee’s recommendation is ‘a glass tunnel, as part of a remodel’a 1950’s restoration or architecture complementary with the library or the new Village School building under construction.’ According to Zorensky, ‘There indeed has been a drop in sound level, but it should be more. To not be able to open a door and carry on a conversation is not neighborly.’