QuikTrip plans to build a convenience store and gas station at the U.S. 27 and Interstate 70 interchange in Richmond.
Paperwork filed with the city’s planning and zoning department indicates QuikTrip has a contract to purchase about 11.5 acres northwest of the interchange. The company would raze existing structures to construct an 8,292-square-foot convenience store and the fuel pumps. The building would mainly be brick and face U.S. 27.
Eight double-sided fuel pumps would be placed under two canopies in front of the store, according to the plans. Five diesel fueling lanes and a truck scale are planned behind the store.
The new station, which would have entrances off U.S. 27 and Highland Road, would join a Meijer gas station, a Speedway station and a Shell station on U.S. 27 south of that interchange as Exit 151 fueling options.
A fueling station is a permitted use in the general commercial and outdoor commercial zoning districts applied to the land QuikTrip plans to purchase. However, QuickTrip has applied for six variances of development standards related to signage. Richmond’s Board of Zoning Appeals is scheduled to hear the petition for those variances during its meeting at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 13 in the Richmond Municipal Building’s third-floor chambers.
QuikTrip requests variances to have a 100-foot-tall pole sign oriented toward I-70 that would list fuel prices, a 4-foot-tall sign along U.S. 27 that would list fuel prices, five building signs, two canopy signs and three signs directing truck traffic. The total square footage of the requested signs also exceeds the maximum allowable square footage for single-tenant buildings.
The petition indicates the signs are necessary to attract drivers deciding to exit the interstate, present information to drivers along U.S. 27 and guide customers safely and efficiently to the store and pumps.
Chester Boulevard Sales & Development LLC and Bryant Leasing LLC currently own the properties where QuikTrip plans to build.
Information about the project and variance requests is available at Richmond’s planning and zoning website, https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/86438372b4c84e23bc36976e364d8f26/.
According to QuikTrip’s website, the Richmond location would be the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company’s first in Indiana. The website lists 1,030 locations in 17 states.
A version of this article appeared in the December 6 2023 print edition of the Western Wayne News.