FAYETTEVILLE — City Council members will decide whether Casey’s General Store can build a gasoline station with access to Wedington Drive.
The 16-pump station is planned at Wedington and Futrall drives, just east of Bill Eddy’s Motorsports where an old auto repair shop is now.
The Ankeny, Iowa-based convenience store chain has run into problems with the city’s access management ordinance. The ordinance states when a development has street frontage on two roads, direct access can only be on the less trafficked road.
In Casey’s case, that would mean an entrance and exit could only be on Futrall Drive.
Geoffrey Bates, an engineer for the project with Bates & Associates, told planning commissioners earlier this month the question of allowing right turns only off westbound Wedington Drive has potential to make or break the project.
At a Glance
Council Agenda
Fayetteville’s City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St. Agenda items include:
-Changes to the ordinance regulating the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market
-A rezoning request from Haas Hall Academy for land at North Gregg Avenue and West Van Asche Drive
-A contract with Ar-Rahim Metal Trading for disassembly and removal of the former Tyson Mexican Original building
-An amended contract with the Walton Arts Center for parking services in 2013.
Source: Staff Report
Planning commissioners denied Casey’s development plans by a 5-3 vote. Bates appealed that decision to the City Council.
He submitted revised plans showing a more angled, right-turn-only entrance, but planning staff said the new design didn’t alleviate their concern.
“We simply don’t feel like the right-in (entrance) is necessary and actually would create more congestion,” Jeremy Pate, Development Services director, told aldermen Tuesday.
Pate said, inevitably, eastbound drivers will still try to make left turns into the fuel station. That has potential to back up traffic on the bridge over Interstate 540 and could lead to accidents.
Pate added a stoplight is in place at the Futrall Drive intersection, less than 200 feet from the planned entrance. East- and westbound drivers could access Casey’s from there, Pate said.
Alan Long, Ward 4 alderman, who represents Fayetteville’s west side, said Tuesday he might be in favor of making an exception for Casey’s.
“A few people that live east of 540 have said to me that they were excited to actually have somewhere to fuel their cars without having to go back to Garland or all the way across the bypass ... in the morning,” Long said.
City Attorney Kit Williams told aldermen they are well within their right to make an exception to code if they find an entrance off Wedington can be built in a safe manner.
A traffic study commissioned by Kum & Go convenience stores, another Iowa company that had eyed the 1.5-acre site, estimated about 2,600 cars would pull into the fuel station each day.