Kwik Trip gets quick OK

by Dave DeMars

news@thenewsleaders.com

At its April 10 meeting, the St. Joseph Planning Commission held a public hearing to review the plans for a new Kwik Trip convenience store and filling station on the corner of CR 75 and 20th Avenue SE, also known as CR 134. With half a dozen residents in the audience, the commission moved to send the project to the city council with recommendations for certain modifications.

The commission, with four members attending, listened carefully as background information was presented by St. Joseph Community Development Director Therese Haffner. The store would have three access points; one on CR 134, two on Minnesota Street E. The accesses on CR 134 would be an ingress access only, and signage would be installed to warn customers not to exit onto CR 134.

The store itself would have a bay for autos and for dispensing gasoline and another bay on the north side of the store for the dispensing of diesel fuel for trucks. The store would also be equipped with a single-bay wash unit for cars. Kwik Trip management plans to operate the store on a 24/7 basis. That is the usual way that Kwik Trip operates, said Kwik Trip Real Estate Development Manager Wade Dumond.

Dumond addressed the commission, saying he was there to answer any questions and that he had been working with Stearns County since June 2016 to iron out some of the issues that were of concern. Of chief concern were the access points.

“Right now, both roads are under county jurisdiction,” Dumond said, “so the city actually has no jurisdiction over the roads in this area. That’s part of the problem that we have because there are two competing jurisdictions and we don’t know who to please. So we need to have that narrowed down.”

Some things, such as street access permits, Dumond said, have been agreed to with the county. For example, the county has already approved 40-foot accesses off Minnesota Street even though the Kwik Trip designers made a mistake. Dumond said they would very much like to keep the 40-foot access and that after consultation with the county, they had reached agreement. At the same time, Dumond said Kwik Trip would like to work with the city as much as possible to work things out.

Dumond said there was some concern about the signage issue at the ingress off CR 134. Language from the county seemed more flexible and Dumond said the concern revolved around how stringent the city would be in enforcing the sign directions, especially in the beginning of operations when there likely would be quite a bit of confusion.

The commission heard from only one St. Joseph constituent, Lisa Meyer, who lives nearby the proposed building site. She was concerned with the location of the diesel bay in relation to the neighborhood. Trucks, she said, make lots of noise and there might be an increase in pollution, especially with the business being open 24 hours a day. She also wondered if the store would operate as a truck stop with large trucks being parked in and around the neighborhood.

Another concern Meyer had was light pollution since the store would be brightly lit. Since the store would be open 24 hours a day, she is also concerned there might be an increase in crime in the neighborhood.

Dumond said the store is not intended to be a truck stop. Rather, it is for convenience of drivers who have diesel pickups and the like. While they could handle the 18-wheelers, Dumond said they would not be staying long-term at all. There is no parking area for them.

“They would be filling up and leaving,” Dumond said.

Dumond addressed the crime issue, saying what has happened in the past is crime actually decreases since the store has lighting on all the time and there are numerous cameras in and around the store monitoring the fuel-bay areas.

“I doubt there is any crime issue based on what I know about the city and the area,” Dumond said. “We actually work very closely with local police and help them because our cameras actually reach out into the streets sometimes.”

Meyer’s final question dealt with a public-address system and the music that is sometimes played over the loudspeakers of some convenience stores.

Dumond said there is a PA system at the stores but that typically it is used only to communicate with customers who are having trouble with a pump. Sometimes there is music during the day hours, but that is not the norm.

“If that does happen and it is annoying, come tell us and we will turn it off,” Dumond said.

With no more discussion, the public hearing was closed and the planning commission recommended approval of the conditional-use permit with the condition city staff work with Kwik Trip to address transportation concerns on 20th Avenue SE. The conditional-use permit request will now go forward to the city council for review.