As we have reported, plans call for the old Phillips 66 station and the old Amoco station — more recently it was a brightly colored Sandbar Subs shop — to be torn down to make way for the high-tech car wash. Zaremba said the new car wash will be about four times as large as the small automatic car wash that is on the property today.

“And it will be a tunnel car wash,” Zaremba said. “We will be able to wash cars much quicker. That’s the big thing so that people don’t have to spend their time waiting.”

The car wash also will be connected to the fuel pumps at Zaremba’s adjacent American Fuels station, meaning that customers can pay for a car wash at the pump.

The Ninth and Iowa project will be good practice for Zaremba’s 23rd Street project. Zaremba said plans call for the same type of car wash to be installed at his convenience store/fueling station at 1500 E. 23rd St.

The existing store at the 23rd Street location will remain unchanged, but some diesel fuel pumps behind the building will be moved. The plans, however, do call for some changes on 23rd Street. The plan proposes a new right-turn lane for motorists using the eastern driveway of the property.

Look for more changes just down the road. Illinois-based Peak Inc. has a deal to buy a portion of the long-vacant lot just east of the QuikTrip at 23rd and Haskell. Plans filed at City Hall call for an approximately 5,000 square-foot automated tunnel car wash, plus 32 stalls equipped with vacuum cleaners for your vehicle.

The project will be on the eastern half of the vacant lot, near the River Rock Family Dental building. The project, however, is not proposing another new curb cut for busy 23rd Street. Instead, car wash customers will use the 23rd Street curb cut that leads to the QuikTrip property. The project will still leave a little less than an acre of vacant property near the QuikTrip that could be developed in the future.

As for the car wash, Brian Sturm with Lawrence’s Landplan Engineering, said the project hopes to begin construction this fall and open in early 2017.

Zaremba, who is using Lawrence-based Paul Werner Architects to design his project, said he also hopes to have the car washes open in early spring.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Car washes aren’t the only thing on the mind of Zaremba. He confirmed to me that he is in the process of preparing a concept plan for development for what will be the new intersection of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Haskell Avenue.

An entity led by Zaremba owns the approximately 18 acres at the northwest corner of 31st and Haskell. Some of you may remember the site as the location of the old LRM asphalt — or perhaps it was a concrete — plant The site now stores some vehicles, mulch and other items. But the property is zoned for heavy industrial use. Zaremba said that could still be a possibility, but more commercial or retail uses also may be a possibility. Of course, a gas station — perhaps a pretty large one — also may make some sense there.

The property is well situated. That portion of the South Lawrence Trafficway has only three interchanges, and Haskell is one of them.

“I feel like it is going to be a prime entrance into the city,” Zaremba said.

He said he doesn’t have any firm plans about what type of development he will propose to the city for the location. He has been adding fill dirt to the location to raise the elevation of the property, which is near the Haskell and Baker Wetlands.

“I want to see what we can bring to the site,” he said. “Right now it is zoned heavy industrial. It is kind of wide open for what could happen there.”

It will be one of several locations to keep an eye on as that leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway opens for traffic. As traffic patterns in the city change significantly, there will be new development pressures emerge along the trafficway. One of the greater questions at City Hall will be how this city commission responds to those pressures.

Town Talk column