A proposed Casey's gas station on Maguire between Market and Gay streets in Warrensburg is concerning to neighbors in the 300 blocks of Market and Gay. This according to a story in the Daily Star-Journal.

According to the paper the redevelopment plan includes:

merging eight lots into one, including 309 E. Market St., 310 E. Gay St and properties directly to the east extending to Maguire Street to build a Casey’s General Store." Residents are concerned the rezoning will impact home values in the area and traffic on Maguire.

It's not a unique challenge for this development. Any time a major street like Maguire borders a residential area like it does around Gay and Market streets this is a concern. Yes, there's already a gas station there. But there's also a couple of houses and some open land. According to the Daily Star-Journal article it looks like the Casey's, if developed, will be a larger one.

As a neighborhood resident I have mixed feelings about the redevelopment plan. While some Facebook comments on the newspaper's Facebook page express the sentiment that four Casy's are enough. I personally wouldn't mind one in the neighborhood. While I might drive to one of the other locations to pick up a Casey's pizza, I regularly stop in the gas stations around Maguire and Gay to pick up candy bars or top off the tank. A Casey's would be nice.

That said, before my wife and I settled in Warrensburg I lived for a couple of months at the Best Western on Limit in Sedalia. Next to a larger Casey's. That's a busy 24 hour store. There's lots of light, some noise, and it's almost always busy. It also adds congestion to that part of Limit. I can see the concern people in the 300 block of Market and Gay streets have.

Casey's does operate smaller stores. And not all of them are open 24 hours. I lived in a town that had a smaller Casey's that closed at 10:00PM most nights and opened at 6:00AM. When I was traveling between Davenport and Sedalia I passed several Casey's. Most were in smaller towns, the kind of town that had a few hundred residents. They were also smaller stores.

I think a smaller store, kind of like those in small towns that wasn't 24 hours would be an excellent compromise. Whether or not Casey's would want to do that on the main drag in Warrensburg near the University of Central Missouri remains to be seen. Whether residents would accept that isn't a slam dunk either.

The Warrensburg Planning and Zoning Committee approved the requests to rezone the two addresses and will be on the city council's agenda for August 26.

 

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