Once slated to open as early as March of 2017, the new QuikTrip store in Platte City remains on hold despite the company’s submission of a final building plan.
No representatives from QuikTrip showed up before or during a 30-minute Platte City Planning and Zoning Meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 3. City officials received the final building plan and informed the company that the approval process would be put on the next available agenda.
With no one there Tuesday to make the presentation, the commission unanimously voted 7-0 to move the agenda items to February. Platte City city administrator DJ Gehrt said no one from QuikTrip confirmed attendance for the meeting, but there was also no indication someone wouldn’t be there.
“The applicants, QuikTrip, are not here, and I think staff would feel better if we waited until they get here,” Gehrt said at the beginning of the meeting.
Gehrt maintained confidence in the anticipated new construction project stemming from an on-again, off-again road construction project completed in late 2016. QuikTrip committed $350,000 up front to assure the extension of Kentucky Avenue to the east to create a new public road from the previously shared drive between the convenience store and adjacent McDonald’s.
According to public documents, the biggest change from the original plan submitted this past June seemed to be the completion of negotiations for QuikTrip to acquire a small triangular parcel of land on its side of the Kentucky Avenue extension that previously belonged to McDonald’s QuikTrip plans to maintain the space and use it for additional parking and a future monument sign.
The planning and zoning commission could not approve the monument sign location over the summer because of the McDonald’s parcel, which measures less than 15,000 square feet.
The new QuikTrip remains slated to be one of the company’s Generation 3 stores, considered a more modern and convenient model which seeks to separate the gasoline sales from the indoor foot traffic, including side entrances that keep indoor shoppers away from the gas canopies. The stores also have an in-store kitchen with touch screen ordering and recently unveiled mobile ordering on made-to-order food and beverages in addition to expanded fountain drink options.
The outdoor landscape will also receive upgrades.
The plans call for outdoor tables with chairs in addition to 13 shade trees, six ornamental trees and more than 650 shrubs. The concept also calls for sidewalks along the extended portion of Kentucky Avenue to connect with new proposed sidewalks that will run along Prairie View Road.
There will be a total of 14 regular gas pumps and seven diesel gas pumps.
The scales, pumps and parking for tractor trailers will be shifted from the west to the east side. Existing structures, canopies, weigh scale, pumps and underground tanks will be removed to make way for all new structures.
The site plan submitted to the Platte City Planning and Zoning Commission in June revealed a design that will put the new building facing toward Highway 92, replacing the current store that faces Prairie View Road. The footprint of the QuikTrip plaza will not increase, but the new layout should help better accommodate the high volume of traffic the store receives.
The new QuikTrip will now have a Branch Street address.
The commission voted 6-0 in favor of the site plan, and at the time, a QuikTrip official said construction was expected to start as early as September. However, QuikTrip did not bring the final plan before the commission until Monday night.
The company previously said to expect a construction period of six to eight months, but no timeline exists for the beginning of the project until the planning and zoning commission approves the final building plan — a process that could be completed next month. Gehrt said the construction will likely happen on QuikTrip’s schedule based on the current delay.
The modernized building helps Platte City anchor one of its biggest retail locations in place. Retaining key businesses has remained a focus of economic development efforts in the city during recent years.
The Platte City QuikTrip is commonly known as the company’s busiest in the Kansas City metro area, but traffic congestion along Prairie View Road might have prevented customers from accessing QuikTrip and the neighboring McDonald’s. All car traffic generally flowed through the store’s two entry points on Prairie View Road, but with the new building now facing west instead of east, the easier access point for general car traffic could be from the new intersection at Kentucky and Highway 92.
The new right-hand merge lane onto and off of Kentucky Avenue at Highway 92 allows drivers to turn without coming to the signalized portion of the
intersection.
Tractor trailers will likely continue to access the facilities from the northern edge but will now be able to exit through the Kentucky Avenue intersection, allowing more space to orient before merging back onto Interstate 29.