By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published July 12, 2024
ST. CLAIR SHORES — A request for site plan approval for a gas station at the Nine Mile Road and Harper Avenue Kroger location was tabled in a 6-1 vote by the St. Clair Shores City Council at their meeting on June 17.
Mayor Pro Tem and Councilwoman Candice Rusie opposed.
Jason Canvasser, an attorney representing Kroger, presented the site plan which included about nine pumps to service 18 vehicles under a 160-foot canopy.
“Other amenities on-site are proposed to include a propane tank exchange, compressed air for inflating tires, windshield cleaning dispensers, site configuration which allows for maneuverability of a full-sized truck with up to a 28-foot boat trailer, a brick knee wall, and landscaping including underground irrigation,” items attached to the meeting’s agenda stated.
Canvasser said that the pumps could also service boats as the gas station will also hold ethanol free gas.
“Unlike the Shell, that is not an offering at that location,” Canvasser said.
There will also be a walk-up stand, Canvasser said, that has limited items such as cigarettes, soft drinks and other things.
The project was already approved by the St. Clair Shores Planning Commission. Canvasser said they don’t believe that traffic will be drastically impacted.
“In fact from what we know from our other stores and doing this at other locations, most of the customers come and they do multiple things when they come to Kroger,” Canvasser said. “They use their fuel points to get gas. They go to the store to get groceries.”
Canvasser added they don’t expect to see a significant increase in traffic from those coming just to get gas.
He said that he doesn’t think adding a fuel kiosk will change the level of security in the store. He listed multiple security measures Kroger has put in place to increase security and decrease theft.
Councilman Ronald Frederick raised concerns about the already busy intersection and the difficulty of turning into the Kroger parking lot during high-traffic times. He asked if they did a traffic study and if they knew how many vehicles would be generated on a particular day.
Matthew Pisko, operations director at Sevan Multi-Site Solutions, said 60% of their traffic historically comes from customers visiting the store.
“We have not done an official traffic study, but we have official counts from historical transactions between existing stores and fuel kiosks,” Pisko said. “So we are aware of that initial impact is an existing trip to the grocery store.”
Frederick asked if there was a reason why a traffic study wasn’t conducted for this particular store. Pisko said it wasn’t mandated through the ordinance.
“We went through several hearings, and it was never requested,” Pisko said.
He added that the Kroger gas station is different from a traditional gas station, stating that customers will go get groceries.
Frederick still had concerns about the traffic.
“I can tell you right now, there’s no way that somebody can get out of that gas station, at the easternmost driveway onto Nine Mile. Impossible,” Frederick said.
He also said he thinks they need a traffic study.
Councilman Chris Vitale pointed out that Harper Avenue becomes an alternate for any crashes that happen on Interstate 94.
“And that traffic really gets heavy,” Vitale said. “So if there’s any kind of a traffic study, I think we should also, you know, prepare for that possibility.”
He added that sometimes the freeway is under construction which also increases traffic.
Vitale said that the security implementations don’t impact the gas station unless there was a chase situation.
“But you just revealed to everyone here that your security guards are there for deterrence. They don’t stop anyone,” Vitale said.
He emphasized that this doesn’t have anything to do with his vote on the gas station.
The site plan was tabled with a request to get a traffic study done and presented to council. The Kroger team was given until the Sept. 3 meeting to get the traffic study.