Another gas station? Hickman Mills residents say no

By Don Bradley

 Residents of a Hickman Mills neighborhood have had their fill-up of gas stations.

They want retail, they want a restaurant, they want a coffee shop, a doughnut shop….what do they get?

Another developer, another gas station. And the group of community activists with Hickman Mills United Neighborhoods knows that a gas station most always means another place to buy liquor.

“There are nine gas stations within a mile of this location,” Brandon Wright, co-chair the group, told a recent meeting. “And the are twelve liquor licenses.”

At issue is a plan submitted on Aug. 27 by developer Bassam Derbas to convert a former Arvest Bank building at 9300 Blue Ridge Blvd., into a gas station. Derbas has said his plan also includes two restaurants on the property, but his request for a special-use permit at the site is only for the installation of tanks and pumps.

He also has said the project would provide sorely-needed jobs to the neighborhood.

Wright was skeptical about jobs. Other gas stations in the area often are “one guy in a glass cage,” he said.

Derbas did not respond to an email request for comment. He told another news outlet that he held a public hearing Oct. 5 on his proposal and nobody showed up.

Wright said his group was not informed of any public hearing.

The case is set for a hearing at City Hall on Dec. 19.

Beth Boerger encouraged everyone at he recent Hickman Mills meeting to email any city official they could think of to let them know the group opposes the Derbas plan.

Fifth-district Council member Darrell Curls said he and colleague Mayor Pro-tem Ryana Parks-Shaw agree with the residents that it’s a problem and were working not only to prevent other gas stations from coming in, but also to attract sustainable businesses that would better serve the neighborhood.

Curls said was looking into legislation that would place a limit on like-businesses in an area.

“I live out there,” Curls said. “I know what they’re talking about. I’m talking with the city’s planning department and the law department to see what we can do without getting the city sued.”

It’s one gas station, but the issue is really a continuation of what some Hickman Mills residents view as longtime disrespect for their part of Kansas City. Wright terms it “systemic disinvestment.”

Hickman Mills in southeast Kansas City is a working-class community that has been left out of major development and corporate investment.

Wright cited closed businesses and abandoned shopping centers in the area and contrasted those with the recent closing of a Sun Fresh grocery store at Red Bridge Shopping Center a few miles to the west. City officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, lobbied for a new store and it is expected to open early next year.

“They have more money and more political pull over there.” Wright said

“Our retail is Family Dollar and Dollar General.”