Residents who live near the proposed gas station have collected more than the 9,798 valid signatures needed to trigger a possible citywide referendum on the rezoning case, according to report in the Arizona Republic. They're fighting the QuikTrip because of the additional traffic and activity the store is expected to bring to the neighborhood.
But it will have to go through elected officials first. The Phoenix [image-nocss] City Council is scheduled on Jan. 5 to consider repealing the ordinance that gave QuikTrip the green light to build on a 2-acre parcel in south Phoenix. If elected officials do not repeal the ordinance, the issue will be sent to the ballot for voters to consider at the next citywide election on Aug. 30.
On Sept. 15, the council voted 7-to-2 to rezone the southwestern corner of 44th Street and Palm Lane from residential to commercial property to make way for the QuikTrip.
Because 44th Street is a busy road, residents fear that drivers who want to avoid turning left onto 44th Street will use Palm Lane to exit the gas station, pushing more traffic onto a residential street not designed for commercial traffic.
Patricia Garcia, an area resident and head of Citizens Against Neighborhood Encroachment, said additional traffic from the QuikTrip will be dangerous for students who use a sidewalk along Palm Lane to get to and from nearby Griffith Elementary School.
Michael Curley, a zoning attorney representing QuikTrip, told the City Council in September that the gas station would attract cars already traveling 44th Street and the rezoning was backed by the Camelback East Village Planning Committee and the city Planning Commission.
QuikTrip donated a 2-acre parcel on 42nd Street and Campbell Avenue as a way of giving back to the community. The land would be turned into a park QuikTrip would maintain for five years and pay $75,000 for in improvements.
A nearby Chevron gas station is also fighting the QuikTrip and has hired zoning attorney Paul Gilbert.
Gilbert argues rezoning the land to commercial violates the city's general plan and there were already 10 gas stations in a 1-mile radius of the property.
Gilbert said the neighborhood in the past has supported building townhomes on the land.
You're putting a very intense, heavily lit, 24-hour operation in a neighborhood that is surrounded by residential to the north, to the south and to the west and also across the street on 44th Street, Gilbert said, according to the newspaper report. This is simply bad land-use planning.
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