The St. Louis County Planning Commission heard a second proposal for a MotoMart near Jefferson Barracks Bridge off Interstate 255 Jan. 11 after the first was denied in 2020.
The new proposal, at 3800 Koch Road, was changed to address concerns county staff and commissioners had with the original. The biggest change was the size of the proposal — in 2020, the proposed site was around 11 acres to accommodate truck refueling. The new proposal is 2.94 acres and no longer calls for a truck refueling area. The size of the proposed main building also shrunk from around 8000 square feet to 5400.
The proposal features a car wash and drive-thru, 35 parking spots, a new pole sign and some landscaping. The gas station would remain open 24/7 and would have a staff of about 35 total employees. Site engineer Mark Doering said the building is 42 feet lower than the nearby highway and showed that it can’t be seen when approaching from Illinois.
Doering said the petitioners held a meeting with neighbors Jan. 5 to discuss the proposal with them and although he said the meeting was mostly positive, one neighbor still spoke against the gas station Jan. 11.
Dave Long said he can see the site from his yard and he and his neighbors are not looking forward to 24/7 lighting near his house.
“There’s no other businesses that would be open at night time in this area. Everything around there would be dark except for that location,” Long said.
Long was also concerned it would draw too much traffic in a place that doesn’t need it, while also not alleviating traffic issues on Telegraph Road.
Doering said a traffic study done by the petitioner showed only one car every 30 seconds on Koch Road at peak times, so an increase in traffic wouldn’t cause any major issues.
“No one ever said this petition would solve all the Telegraph problems due to traffic at the interchange, but it will reduce them,” Doering said. “Whenever we get a chance to make the South County area safer … we need to take that chance.”
The commission will vote on the proposal in February.
