The Abridged version:
- The Elk Grove City Council is scheduled to decide Wednesday whether to approve a new fueling station in the southern part of the city.
- The project has drawn vocal opposition from some residents, who say the station will bring more traffic, crime and unwanted large trucks.
- Planning commissioners approved the project with a 90-minute limit on nonemployee parking at the site, but opponents asked council members to reverse the approval.
Elk Grove community members are fighting a proposed fueling station in the southern part of the city, citing heavier traffic, potential crime and the presence of large trucks near residential areas.
City Council members will weigh in Wednesday. City staff has recommended approval.
The city’s Planning Commission initially took up the issue during its Sept. 18 meeting, approving the project on a 4-1 vote.
A group of residents, under the name Protect Elk Grove, filed an appeal later that month, giving the City Council an opportunity to affirm or overturn the Planning Commission’s approval.
Officials say this will not be a truck stop
Elk Grove city officials and a representative for Maverik, the company behind the station, have emphasized that what will be built is not a truck stop.
“The application is for a fueling station,” Kyra Killingsworth, senior planner for the city, said in September. “Trucks cannot park here. … There’s no plans for trucks.”
Killingsworth said the city will also adjust current intersection road designs to address traffic concerns. The store will be equipped with high-definition cameras to mitigate possible crime, Maverik representative Todd Meyers told the Planning Commission.
What will be on the south Elk Grove site?
The business would be located on 10490 E. Stockton Blvd. The nearest residential neighborhood is about two-thirds of a mile away, Killingsworth said.
A nearly 6,000-square-foot convenience store would be accompanied by two fueling canopies, one for RVs, delivery vehicles and semi trucks, the other for passenger vehicles.
The pumps would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, the site will not allow overnight parking, and the public bathrooms will not have showers, preventing it from serving as a truck stop, officials said.
Traffic tops resident pushback
A string of public comments in September echoed an anxiety that the refueling station catering to large trucks would increase road congestion.
Rob Branch, of the real estate agency PRB Commercial, told the Planning Commission that he drives by the proposed project site multiple times per week.
“It is already a nightmare,” he said. “Adding more traffic is absolutely ludicrous.”
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.