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- Cape Coral residents have noticed a proliferation of car washes in their city and question the need for so many.
- Industry experts attribute the growth to a post-pandemic boom, changing consumer preferences, and automation leading to lower labor costs.
- The city implemented a moratorium on new car wash construction in April 2024 to encourage business diversity and later introduced new regulations.
To many Cape Coral residents, it seems like every road they drive down in the city has another car wash on another corner. Some are already operating, many more are under construction.
A constant point of conversation in the city, many find themselves asking: why are there so many car washes, and how did we get here?
Cape Coral car washes: residential vs. commercial
David Garberson, a Cape Coral resident, is watching another new car wash slowly coming together just 10 feet from his property line. He’s concerned about privacy issues and the increased traffic to his neighborhood off Cape Coral Parkway.
“The people that live here just don’t particularly care to have people pulling in looking directly in their windows,” Garberson said. “How many times do you have to wash your car?”
He’s not the only one who feels like this. When responding to a poll published by The News-Press, 84% of respondents felt that there were too many car washes in Cape Coral, and that the city should stop building more.
“I don’t know how the car washes we have make any money, of the dozen I drive by weekly I never see more than two cars there,” a commenter named Jeff said in the comments section of the poll.
Why car washes?
Car washes have been a booming industry for a while, with big spikes happening post-pandemic once national lockdowns were lifted. Many also attribute the spike to an overall change in attitude from consumers.
According to the International Car Wash Association, more people are choosing to have their car washed for them as opposed to washing it themselves. They found that the percentage of drivers who choose to get their car washed by a professional car wash rose from 48% in 1980 to almost 80% today.
“The Chamber of Commerce is a champion for business and advocate for community within the city of Cape Coral and believes it is our responsibility to oppose issues that create a negative impact on private property rights and the business community and its right to a free market,” the letter said.
John Shannon, a research economist with Florida Gulf Coast University, says that automation also plays a key role in the industry’s success.
“Automation over the years has made these places more productive, which can lower the overall labor cost of these facilities,” Shannon said.
Automation is right. These days, many car washes are sprawling complexes with multiple stations, and fully self-service. People won’t see a single person throughout the entire process.
With this recent growth, many are looking to the city for solutions. The city, in turn, has slowed down construction.
A recent car wash moratorium in Cape Coral: What to know
The city has stopped new car wash constructions before. Back in April 2024, city councilmembers implemented a moratorium, or a pause, on new permits for car washes. As for why, Shannon suspects it’s all about diversity.
“Commercial space is going to be more limited here, so when people look at car washes, they do take up quite a bit of space to develop, to operate,” he said. “From a development standpoint, I can see if you want to diversify your economy more, you would want to incentivize other types of businesses to use some of this land space.”
Cape Coral’s Chamber of Commerce opposed the April 2024 moratorium in a position letter to city council.
After the moratorium, in October, Cape Coral City Council approved a new ordinance, titled “Ordinance 66-24,” that implemented new location restrictions, enclosure standards, residential adjacency requirements, and more to new car wash constructions.
As of January 2025, the moratorium has been lifted, and all new car wash constructions must follow the regulations stated by Ordinance 66-24.
Even with these new regulations, some citizens are still feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of car washes in the city. But are there really so many car washes? Or are people just noticing them more?
Cape Coral car washes: It can be a matter of perception
While there are many car washes in Cape Coral, 43 according to Shannon, who cited data in Lightcast, a proprietary labor market analytics firm, it may be more a fact that people notice car washes because of the way that they’re built and operated. And compared to other businesses, that number doesn’t stick out as unreasonable.
For comparison, according to Martindale-Hubbell, a database for law firms, there are almost 40 law firms operating today in Cape Coral. Similarly, there are almost 40 accounting/tax businesses in the city, according to a review of Google Maps.
“With respect to car washes, they’re quite large establishments relative to a lot of other service types of establishments, so they’re going to stick out more,” Shannon said. “This is not to say that we don’t have other types of services here, we just don’t notice them as much.”
What Cape Coral residents are saying about car washes
Cape Coral Facebook groups are filled with hundreds of posts and opinions from residents about all of the car washes there − existing and new ones under construction. Here is a sampling of some of the best comments we found for a post from August 2024 that asked the question: Why are there so many car washes in Cape Coral? Note: The Cape Coral Residents Facebook Group is private, and responses can be viewed by members. Several News-Press staffers are members of that group and are identified as such.
- “Lots of car washes because there is a butt load of people here. Over 234K at last count. We have about the same ratio of car washes as a town of 30K having 2 car washes. Has anyone ever seen a Cape Coral car wash sit empty during operating hours? No? Me, neither.”
- “Better than giant, high rise residential complexes.”
- “We should be letting the business owners decide if there is room for another one or not. If they’re willing to risk the money to build one, they looked at it a lot closer than anybody else would be.”
- “We’re going for a Guinness book world record!”
- “Have you seen the traffic? Lots of cars owned by people that won’t wash it themselves= lots of car washes.”
- “Y’all really beat this car wash topic to death lol”
