A public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, on QuikTrip’s proposal to construct a convenience store with gas pumps at the Missouri Department of Transportation’s east commuter lot at Kennerly and Weber Hill roads has been postponed until May.

The Sunset Hills Planning and Zoning Commission now will conduct a public hearing on QuikTrip’s proposal when it meets Wednesday, May 7, according to Mayor Bill Nolan.

Nolan told the Call that the developer requested the public hearing be postponed until a required traffic study is completed.

The request came after aldermen raised concerns at a work session last week about holding the public hearing before Sansone has completed a traffic study and before the board has some of its questions to MoDOT about traffic concerns answered.

Opposition to the development has spurred nearby resident Mark Furrer to file to run against Mayor Bill Nolan as a write-in candidate in Tuesday’s election. No one opposed Nolan when filing closed Jan. 25.

Furrer disputed that Sansone or QuikTrip would have been behind postponing the hearing, since they are experienced developers and would have known that their traffic study would not be ready ahead of time.

“The mayor can honestly say, ‘I didn’t do it, it was the petitioner,’ but it’s strictly dirty politics,” Furrer said. “It’s just politics as usual. They’re trying to bump it past the election. This has people so upset you wouldn’t believe it. This isn’t the kind of way we want to operate.”

Nolan said that he and aldermen have asked MoDOT to fix the disputed intersection at Weber Hill and Kennerly, but the state agency has said it has no money to fix the traffic problems. For that reason, Nolan said the QuikTrip might be the only way the intersection is addressed.

“If the intersection could be improved, and it could be improved because of the presence of QT, then I’m in favor of it,” he said. “If you can’t improve the intersection, then you don’t need QT. It’s just that simple. MoDOT won’t spend any money on it.”