Jim's Car Wash, the South Dallas business that city officials and residents have long viewed as a crime magnet, has 30 days to close after a city Board of Adjustment ruling Wednesday.

The board voted unanimously to give Dale Davenport, the car wash's owner, until July 19 to shutter the business — a compromise between a city attorney's request to close the place immediately and Davenport's plea for 60 days.

Although the city won't allow Davenport to operate a car wash on the site, he still owns the property. But Davenport said the city has infringed on his property rights and promised to continue to fight Wednesday's decision.

City officials have long blamed Jim's, on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, for crime in the area. Residents say the car wash is a popular hangout for unruly crowds. In June, a shooting at the site left a woman who worked there dead and four others injured.

Former City Council member Kevin Felder, who represented the area until this week and pushed for the car wash's closure, said Wednesday that South Dallas has suffered because of the business.

"This is a victory for the community," Felder said. "The city of Dallas is not responsible for being the security guard for business."

City Council member Adam Bazaldua, who replaced Felder, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The process that led to Wednesday's hearing predated both Felder and Bazaldua. The council rezoned the area in 2012 and banned use of a car wash; since then, the business has been considered a "nonconforming use" but was allowed to continue operating.

The City Council voted in the fall to allow the Board of Adjustment to decide on the car wash's future. The board unanimously decided in March to shutter the business because it had an "adverse effect" on nearby properties.

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The hearing was a follow-up to determine when the business should shutter. The board based its decision on whether Davenport properly recouped his initial investment in the car wash.

Edwin Voss, an attorney representing the city, wanted the business to be considered "noncompliant" — which forces the business to close, or not operate as a car wash — as of Wednesday. Voss' expert witness, financial analyst Scott Hakala, estimated Davenport made $150,000 in revenue a year. Hakala said Davenport should have recouped his initial investment in the business, which he purchased in the 1990s with his father, many times over by now.

But Davenport said he made less than $100,000 in 2018. And he said he needed time to remove the car wash's inventory — he specifically mentioned a year's worth of soap — and secure the premises with a fence. He also estimated that would cost him about $12,500 and requested that the city allow him to keep the car wash open another two months to recover the cost.

Marshall Cornelius — the widower of Sheila Sanders, the woman who was fatally shot in June — was also an employee at Jim's Car Wash. Currently out of a job, he pleaded with board members to keep the car wash open because it offered employment opportunities.

Another of Davenport's employees, Byron Wilson, said safety and police response are the city's responsibility, not Davenport's.

"We don't need the car wash closed," Wilson said at the hearing. "We need some help."

Scott Hounsel, the Board of Adjustment's chairman, said he supported giving Davenport a little more time, but believed 60 days would be excessive.

"The shock of not knowing whether today was the day is in itself, in my opinion, a burden," Hounsel said.

Some neighborhood residents who attended the hearing were relieved that the business would soon be gone, but expressed concern over what's coming. They said they didn't want the lot to remain vacant and hoped the community could be involved in its next steps.

But Davenport, who is also under a court order from a state district judge to secure the property, said he doesn't intend to open a business in its place. He said the city unfairly targeted his car wash and believes crime problems will persist with another business there.

He said the board's decision will affect businesses' willingness to come to the area.

"Why would anybody want to ever invest in South Dallas again?" he asked.