FAYETTEVILLE — Northwest Fayetteville residents could be making pit stops at a new Kum & Go convenience store by the end of the year.
The city's Planning Commission on Monday approved plans for a 10-pump, 5,000-square-foot fuel station at Mount Comfort Road and Shiloh Drive.
AT A GLANCE
Meeting Information
Also on Monday, the Fayetteville Planning Commission:
• Approved plans for a Crain Hyundai dealership west of Interstate 540 at Shiloh and Foxglove drives
• Permitted a Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers restaurant southwest of Wedington Drive and Salem Road as part of the Forest Hills development
• Recommended rezoning 10.2 acres north of Alberta Street and east of Broyles Avenue next to The Coves subdivision
• Recommended rezoning 9.8 acres southwest of Paddock Road and Happy Hollow Road where a residential subdivision is planned.
Source: Staff Report
The project had been held up for more than two months while Kum & Go representatives tried to resolve access issues on the 1.7-acre site.
City planners did not want to allow a driveway on Mount Comfort Road. If a driveway were approved, planners recommended limiting access to right turns only in and out of the development.
"A driveway for a high-traffic-generating business, such as a convenience store, will create congestion and potentially dangerous turning movements," Jesse Fulcher, senior planner, said in a memo to commissioners.
"Access to this property should be limited to Shiloh Drive only," Fulcher said.
City code prohibits access on the more highly trafficked of two streets when a development goes in on a corner lot. But planning commissioners can make exceptions to the rule.
Rob Wadle, project manager with Kum & Go, said driveways on both Mount Comfort Road and Shiloh Drive were needed to give customers multiple ways to access the site.
Wadle agreed to widen Mount Comfort Road and extend a left turn lane about 125 feet, giving eastbound drivers more room to turn into Kum & Go without backing up traffic. He requested full access in and out of the Mount Comfort driveway.
Planning commissioners agreed to allow left turns into the driveway because of the extended turn lane. But they decided not to allow left turns out of the site on Mount Comfort Road.
Commissioner Craig Honchell mentioned the danger of making left turns across multiple lanes of traffic, especially when the sun is in the eyes of people headed east toward Interstate 540 in the morning and headed west from I-540 at the end of the day.
William Chesser, the only commissioner to oppose Kum & Go's plans, said he would have preferred right turns only.
"You seem to be suffering from your own successes, because you have so much traffic," Chesser told Kum & Go representatives.
Monday's action will allow Kum & Go to move forward with purchasing land from Joan Hays.
The company, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, has 17 stores in Washington and Benton counties, including two sites in Fayetteville -- at Hill Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and at College Avenue and Township Street. A fourth Fayetteville store is planned at Huntsville Road and Happy Hollow Road where the Tyson Mexican Original factory once stood.
NW News on 03/25/2014