South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

QuikTrip revives plan for Telegraph Road site

By SCOTT MILLER

Staff Reporter

The QuikTrip Corp. rejuvenated its effort to construct a 24-hour gas station and convenience store on Telegraph Road in Oak-ville, and residents revitalized a petition drive against the proposal.

A request is pending before the county Planning Commission for a zoning change about 550 feet south of Forder Road on Telegraph Road that would allow construction of a 4,555-square-foot, nine-pump gas station and convenience store.

The Planning Commission recommended approval of the same request last year, but the County Council refused to act on it, automatically denying the request after it sat idle for 90 days.

QuikTrip then took the county to court, where a judge has not made a ruling, but “it’s been one year so we have the opportunity to bring the request back (to the county),” according to attorney John P. King of Blumenfeld, Kaplan and Sandweiss, who is representing the QuikTrip Corp.

“We’re going to keep the petition in court,” he added. “If we’re successful (with the pending request) we won’t need it. If not, we’ll have it resolved in court.”

Meanwhile, petitions opposing Quik-Trip’s proposal are popping up at businesses on Telegraph Road.

County Council Chairman John Cam-pisi, R-south county, let QuikTrip’s proposal die last year and opposed another QuikTrip proposal in 2001 for a station on Telegraph. He hasn’t decided what he wants to do this year, however, assuming the Planning Commission again recommends approval of the project.

“I’m going to take that back out to the community before I do anything,” Campisi said. “So I’ll receive and file it (the Plan-ning Commission’s recommendation) and it will sit there until I get the community’s opinion on this.”

A public hearing on the proposal scheduled Monday night was canceled that morning and will be made up but a date hasn’t been set, according to the Depart-ment of Planning.

During last year’s request, 1,170 people signed petitions opposing the QuikTrip proposal, while 52 signatures supported the request. The Planning Department also re-ceived 349 letters of opposition and 18 letters of support. Also, 30 people attended a public hearing on the matter; 20 raised their hands in opposition and 10 in support.

The main concern, according to Depart-ment of Planning documents, was traffic safety.

QuikTrip is requesting a zoning change to the C-8 Planned Commercial District and Amended C-8 Planned Commercial Dis-trict from the 10,000-square-foot R-3 Resi-dence District and C-8 Planned Commer-cial District for a 2.02-acre site on the west side of Telegraph. The corporation made the same recommendation last year.

When it was denied by the council, Quik-Trip sought a court injunction that would force the county to rezone the land accordingly, alleging the current zoning is unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious because it is inconsistent with the surrounding character development.

Since the land was zoned as residential, Telegraph Road has been enlarged and commercial use significantly has in-creased, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is on hold pending the outcome of QuikTrip’s current request.

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