Markeshia Ricks Photo
PMG’s Gary Kilfeather and attorney Meaghan Miles.
A Cedar Hill gas station overhaul is moving forward at the corner of State and Ferry streets without the ability to operate 24/7 — at least for now.
City Plan Commissioners gave site plan unanimous approval to a future 7‑Eleven or Circle K at their regular monthly meeting at City Hall last week. That will allow the new owners, PMG Petroleum, to get to work reconfiguring the 21,654 square-foot lot by tearing down the existing 624 square-foot convenience store and a 384-square foot masonry building. PMG purchased the property in July 2017 for $1.55 million.
VISION
The gas station at the corner of State and Ferry streets.
PMG is planning to build a new 2,450 square-foot convenience store on the eastern property line at 1331 State St. that attorney Meaghan Miles told commissioners to expect “a revitalized site that is well lit, safe, modern, clean.”
Engineer Ron Lezott said the plan improves circulation the site partly by removing the two curb cuts on State Street to put one centralized curb cut on that street and keeping an existing curb cut on Ferry.
“The configuration is pretty confusing especially the way the canopy is angled on the property,” he said. PMG also is proposing new LED lights to make lighting more uniform across the site. There also will be a security camera on one side of the store that looks across to the municipal lot on the other side of the street along with three other cameras on the building. Lezott said the police will have the ability to monitor the cameras remotely.
Radcliffe.
“Is this a 24-hour operation?” Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe asked
“The current site operates 24 hours,” Attorney Miles said. Radcliffe clarified her question asking whether it would remain a 24-hour operation after it was rebuilt.
“We have to get a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals to do that,” Miles said. “It’s to-be-determined, but we’ve been having ongoing discussions with the community and police. And we know that if we do it, it has to be done in a safe and secure manner that everyone is comfortable with. But that’s later down the road.”
What Miles didn’t mention is that PMG had attempted to get the special exception back in October but ran into opposition at the Board of Zoning Appeals from Cedar Hill neighbors and then-top neighborhood cop Lt. Renee Dominguez. The BZA granted permission for a variance to permit zero feet of side yard where five feet is required, a special exception for the expansion of an existing gas station and a certificate of approval of location for gas sales in BA district. But the BZA sided with neighbors and put the kibosh on the 24-hour operation. (Read more about that here.)
Back then PMG indicated that not being able to operate 24 hours a day might scuttle the whole deal but that didn’t appear to be the case Wednesday at City Plan Commission.
“PMG will comply with the zoning regulations when they operate,” Miles said, “whatever the requirements may be at that time.”
Radcliffe said what PMG was proposing looked a lot better than what is there now, particularly when it comes to the flow of traffic on the site.
“As it stands now you don’t know where you’re supposed to go,” she said. “I’ve gone into that gas station and gone right out because I didn’t know exactly how the traffic was supposed to flow.”
She said a larger, brighter convenience store would better serve the neighborhood because there really isn’t any other type of neighborhood store in close proximity.
“I’m not a big fan of convenience stores and enlarging gas stations, but this one might be a plus for the neighborhood,” she said.
