A new Circle K gas station would be built along Idaho 55 in Donnelly under plans approved Monday night by the Donnelly City Council.
The Arizona-based gas station and convenience store chain is set to build a new location at the intersection of Idaho 55 and Roseberry Road, across the highway from an existing Stinker station.
Construction on the Circle K could begin as soon as next year, said Paige Connair of Kimley-Horn, a Boise engineering and planning firm that represented the company at Monday’s city council meeting.
The gas station will include a 5,200-square-foot convenience store, three underground fuel tanks, and five pumps capable of fueling 10 vehicles at a time, according to plans.
The 1.4-acre site at 126 S. Main St. would include 23 parking spaces, including five seasonal RV spaces that could double as snow storage in the winter. Most snow, however, would be pushed into a stormwater retention pond on the southeast corner of the property.
Proposed in a “tight spot”
Traffic on Idaho 55 and Roseberry Road, along with a potential future stoplight at the intersection, dominated the council’s discussion about the proposal.
“It’s a very tight spot,” said Mark Butler, an Eagle planning consultant contracted by the city to assist with development application reviews. “You’re not signalized yet there at Roseberry and Highway 55, you don’t know when that’s going to come, and you know the traffic conflicts that are there.”
The council’s approval for Circle K is contingent on the gas station’s Idaho 55 access being a right-in, right-out concept to reduce backups caused by vehicles waiting to turn left onto the highway.
“That means vehicles heading northbound can turn right in and if they’re leaving, turn right out, but you can’t cross that center. said Butler, who recommended the requirement. “It’s too dangerous there.”
The right-only pattern could be enforced with a raised median in the center of Idaho 55 or in the driveway of the gas station’s access, though the Idaho Transportation Department has the final say on that design.
Circle K would be required to come back before the council for approval if neither concept is approved by ITD.
Future stoplight
The right-in, right-out traffic pattern would also help prepare the intersection of Idaho 55 and Roseberry Road for a future stoplight, Butler said.
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Currently, ITD is requiring Circle K to build a northbound turn lane on Idaho 55 for vehicles turning into the gas station, but not a stoplight.
Council members were skeptical that any measure short of a stoplight would resolve congestion in the area, which is a crossroads to Tamarack Resort and McCall.
“No matter what we do, we’re going to have an issue because traffic always backs up from Roseberry Road south and north,” Donnelly Mayor Susan Dorris said.
“I think it’s very important, but I just don’t see it being a realistic thing (right now),” council member Jacquelyn Hengeller said.
Butler plans to continue working with ITD on putting a stoplight in at the intersection, but warned that it “might take years.”
Alcohol restriction waiver
The Circle K convenience store, which will sell beer and wine, backs up to the Donnelly Bible Church to the east.
State law requires at least 300 feet of separation between churches and businesses that sell alcohol, but council members voted to waive that law in June to make way for the Circle K.
Part of that waiver included a requirement for an 8-foot-tall privacy fence to be built between the Circle K and the church property.
The Circle K will be built on a parcel at 126 S. Main St. that currently has a single-family residence built on it. The property is owned by Donnelly resident Johanna Defoort, who said the sale to Circle K is still pending.
“We do have another place to live here in Valley County once the sale is finalized,” said Defoort, who serves as Valley County Treasurer.
A public hearing was not held at Monday’s city council meeting due to commercial zoning on the parcel that allows gas stations without additional permitting. Only the design of the Circle K was subject to council approval.
Circle K currently operates four gas stations in Idaho. One is in Lewiston and the other three are in the Coeur d’Alene area, according to the company’s website.
Earlier this year, the company submitted preliminary plans for three different locations in Boise and Meridian, though formal applications for those locations have not yet been filed.
Circle K operated 45 locations across southwest Idaho until 1999, when Meridian-based Jacksons Food Stores bought the local Circle K locations, more than doubling the size of Jacksons at the time, the Idaho Statesman reported.
