DES MOINES, Iowa -- Officials representing some of Iowa's biggest convenience store chains said efforts to bring more public scrutiny to their construction projects are unfair and could jeopardize the industry's future in Des Moines, Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.
City officials and residents are pushing for tighter design guidelines and more public input on site plans for c-stores and gas stations, said the report. Such action would help ensure that the appearance, traffic, noise and lighting associated with today's bigger facilities conform with neighborhood characteristics, [image-nocss] proponents contend.
Public hearings before the Plan & Zoning Commission would be brought into the approval process for c-store site plans under a proposal some industry representatives argue is cumbersome and unjust.
"Our client, QuikTrip Corp., feels this draft unfairly singles out [c-stores] and would effectively force QuikTrip from additional expansion in the Des Moines market," Larry James Jr., an attorney for Dickinson Mackaman Tyler & Hagen, wrote in a recent letter to city officials on behalf of the chain cited by the newspaper.
Other industry official argue that the proposed regulations unduly target their industry and could cause them financial hardship, said the report.
Des Moines Plan & Zoning Commission member Bruce Heilman said convenience stores and gas stations haven't been singled out. Rather, city zoning officials are trying to add them to a relatively short list of land uses that require public hearings because certain developments have a unique ability to disturb residential areas, he said.
"We don't want the bulldozers to show up one day and have the residents not know what's going on," he told the paper.
Brian Millard, who was part of a Des Moines Neighbors subcommittee that helped push the city to initiate the proposed changes, said he is concerned that gas stations and c-stores no longer fit neighborhoods the way they used to. "Some of the [c-stores] are out of scale and aesthetically not in harmony with the city's neighborhoods," Millard, a Plan & Zoning Commission member, told the Register. "Residents in Des Moines need to have a larger voice in what's being thrust upon them."
Tara Deering-Hansen, a spokesperson for West Des Moines-based Kum & Go LC, told CSP Daily News, "During the nearly 50 years that we've been in business, we've prided ourselves on being good community partners in the areas where we have locations. Whenever we build a new Kum & Go store, we work closely with city officials and the community to ensure that we meet all zoning regulations and that our store buildings are aesthetically pleasing. We want the city and its residents to take as much pride in our stores as we do."
She added, "These proposed zoning guidelines will specifically challenge gas stations and [c-stores]. We're proud to be a part of the Des Moines community and relish the relationship that we have with our various neighborhoods. New [c-stores] bring jobs to communities and spur economic growth. If these new guidelines are adopted, it will create more challenges for companies like ours to build in Des Moines. Also, along the lines of being a good community partner, we dedicate and distribute more than 10% of our profits each year to the communities that we serve."
A request for more time to tweak proposed changes to the regulations was unanimously struck down late last week by the Plan & Zoning Commission, the Register said. A delay would likely bring more complaints instead of solutions from opponents, commission Chairman Dann Flaherty told the paper.
James had asked the commission for an extra month to negotiate. "I don't see this ordinance as clear and specific," he told the paper. "I see it as an ordinance that leaves a lot of interpretation." He did not respond by presstime to a request by CSP Daily News for additional comments.
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