BILLINGS — If you've driven down 24th Street West over the past couple of days, you've probably noticed a field of dirt where the old Golden Corral once stood.
That lot will become a new Tidal Wave Auto Spa, or the 21st car wash in Billings (including stand alone washes and washes attached to gas stations).
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The new car wash will be over 93,000 square feet, or just over 1.3 acres.
MTN asked Billings residents what they thought of the new addition.
"I think we've got quite a few (car washes)," said Nova Rosman while cleaning her car at Buggy Bath Car Wash on Friday.
"That's a lot of car washes," said Jordan Rees on a Billings street Friday.
According to the Billings Planning Division Manager Anna Vickers, in the last three years the city has approved five to ten car washes.
With the new Tidal Wave Auto Spa, the west end will have seven, the east end will have eight, and the heights will have six washes.
"I've seen at least three, maybe two since I've been here (since 2021). They go up pretty quick, and yeah, almost every corner there's a car wash," Rees said.
"In my opinion, there's way too many car washes in Billings. It barely takes me 20 minutes to drive across Billings, so there's no reason there should be 20 car washes," said resident Diego Geertz on a Billings street Saturday.
But a surplus of car washes is a national trend. Last year, NPR reported that there are about 60,000 car washes in the United States, with that number expected to double by 2030.
A few reasons for this cultural shift include the fact that car washes have low overhead costs, a high volume of customers, and families typically own more than one car.
A few Billings residents told MTN they would have preferred the lot of land to be used for recreational activities rather than another car wash.
"I definitely think Billings has a lot of car washes and casinos. I'd love to see more areas for people to do things more socially," Rosman said.
"I think that maybe there can be some new things we can enjoy, new restaurants maybe," Geertz said.
Vickers says the city does not have a say in which businesses goes where.
She says if the business is in compliance with the zoning code and have building plans, then they are approved.
For the former Golden Corral space, the zone is a Corridor Mixed Use 2 or CMU2.
"When we talk about zoning, every zoning has different designations within the city... So, there's multiple uses that are allowed on this parcel: a restaurant, an office, an outdoor recreation facility, indoor recreation facility, a car sales lot, and a car wash," she said.
