Gas station, burger joint going up on Araby Road

A combined fast food restaurant and convenience store along with a gas station meant for the northwest corner of Araby Road and 32nd Street was approved Monday by the city of Yuma Planning and Zoning Commission.

Sam Perricone was unanimously granted a conditional use permit for the nearly 1.5 acre site at 6400 E. 32nd St. A conditional use permit is granted outright by the commission and does not go on to the Yuma City Council.

Because of a development agreement arrived at with Yuma before the property was annexed into the city, the businesses can be built according to Yuma County standards instead of city standards.

That means they will be allowed to have driveways near the Araby Road and 32nd Street intersection closer than the 500 feet that city regulations require.

Because of the pre-annexation development agreement, the property also will not be required to adhere to the city's landscaping requirements for major entrances into the city.

However, a Jack in the Box representative from San Diego told commissioners the company will try to incorporate the city's landscaping requirements into its design anyway.

"Somebody can accidentally send me a copy," he said.

The proposed development consists of a 4,931 square-foot building with a drive-through window on the west side. The convenience store will take up about half the building, and a Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant will take up the other half.

Access to the site will be from both 32nd Street and Araby Road.

Approval of the conditional use permit is subject to 16 conditions, including providing the city with an updated traffic study for the area, which must be completed by the time the building permit is issued.

Perricone has one year to complete the work or he can ask for a one-time, one-year extension for the conditional use permit.

In other action, commissioners also gave city staff policy direction on how planned major thoroughfares should be handled on the city's section and half-section lines. Commissioners agreed such roads should be built wherever possible as thoroughfares that allow motorists to move easily and quickly across town.

However, commissioners said they understood that in reality some places in the city already have subdivisions in place blocking such roads from continuing in a straight line. In those cases, exceptions will have to be made, commissioners said.

"You deal with what you have on hand," Commissioner Art Nottingham said. "You don't go back and take out houses."

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T.M. Shultz can be reached at tshultz@yumasun.com or 539-6852.