Potential Topeka truck stop heads to city council with revised recommendations

TOPEKA (KSNT) – A potential truck stop in Topeka will have to pump the brakes on its project, but that doesn’t mean a filling station won’t be going in.

People from the surrounding neighborhoods of a potential Maverik filling station near I-70 and Fairlawn came to protest the project at Monday night’s planning commission meeting.

Topeka City Council voted to send this project back to the planning commission for further review at the beginning of the month, following considerable concern from residents in the surrounding area. Tonight, people had the opportunity to share those frustrations with the planning commission.

New Topeka truck stop put on hold, sent back to planning commission

After many public comments were made, ranging from concerns with safety, disrupting businesses, added traffic and more, the planning commission voted to send the rezoning back to the city council with recommendations for no diesel pumps and no weigh station, thus eliminating the possibility for semi-trucks to use the space.

While the vote received cheers from many people in attendance, others who spoke wanted to see more.

“I actually would have preferred them to totally vote against this,” Concerned Citizen Wendy Farley said. “Seventh street can not manage the amount of traffic that Maverik is going to bring to this area.”

“I think it’s progress. However, I think really what we need would be more of what was the original plan, and the zoning was for residential housing,” Concerned Citizen Sarah Bremer Parks said. “I don’t think we really need another gas station convenience store in that area.”

The city council is expected to vote on these recommendations on August 12. Although it’s unclear whether Maverik would still be interested in building on the property if it can’t build a truck stop as originally proposed.