Staff Report
A judge is set to decide whether a lawsuit filed by the owner of the now-demolished Constan Car Wash can proceed against the city of Columbia, South Carolina.
In the suit, the owner of the car wash formerly located in the Five Points neighborhood, O. Stanley Smith, claims the city put the nearly 75-year-old operation out of business.
According to The Columbia (S.C.) State, Smith is demanding the city pay more than $4 million because he says it took down a retaining wall in 2021 that subsequently caused unmanageable flooding at the site.
The car wash closed from repeated damage from flooding in 2022 after 73 years in operation. The site was demolished in 2023.
The lawsuit centers on whether the city had the legal right to take down the retaining wall, which was built by Smith for $40,000 in 2018 along one of property’s boundary lines. The suit says during the three years the wall was up the property did not flood.
Smith alleges the damage caused by the city started long before the wall was even built, because the city failed to address repeated flooding issues in the area. Once the wall was taken down, flooding continued at the site leading to its ultimate destruction.
In response to Smith’s suit, the city denied any wrongdoing and said it had the right to remove the wall.
In March, city officials scrapped plans to buy the property for a flood-control project in light of the lawsuit.
Constan Car Wash was reportedly home to the first automated car wash in Columbia.
