Council lifts limits amid mini-mart plans where mobile home park once stood
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City officials have smoothed the way for the site of a former mobile home park on State Street to be turned into a convenience store and gas station.
Casey’s Marketing Co., owners of the Casey’s General Store chain, is proposing to build a gas station and convenience store at the former Kennedy Mobile Home Park at State Street and Gladstone Avenue. The property owners removed the last of the mobile homes in the nearly 60-year-old park last summer.
The park was owned by Bertha Kennedy, who died in 2007. Since then, her executors have been trying to sell the property because Kennedy’s will required the proceeds to be divided among her heirs. The park closed in August.
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Casey’s What: Casey’s Marketing Co., owners and operators of Casey’s General Store convenience stores and gas stations. Corporate stores: 1,728; 78 in Indiana. Nearest locations: Edinburgh and Seymour. History: Started in 1959 with a country store in Des Moines, Iowa, that was turned into a convenience store with gas station. Menu: Casey’s pizza, including made-from-scratch and specialty pizzas; chicken tenders, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, ham-and-cheese sandwiches, doughnuts, brownies, cookies and croissant and biscuit sandwiches for breakfast. |
At its Tuesday meeting, the Columbus City Council approved lifting two conditions laid on the property when it was rezoned in 2008 — that the property not have a State Street entrance and that any use be designed with parking in the rear and pedestrian access off State Street.
Jeff Bergman, the city/county planning director, said the city included the conditions to match the character of other businesses on the street. However, the conditions would require the developer to build the store close to the State Street frontage and to have the gas pumps and canopy to the rear of the lot, Bergman said. The Columbus Plan Commission recommended lifting the conditions, he said.
Gordon Lake, husband of Barbara Lake, the executor of Kennedy’s will, said they have been told by neighbors and workers at the nearby Dorel plant that they were looking forward to having a Casey’s General Store at the location.
“I can’t tell you how many times people have come to us from the factories ... and said we sure would like to have another place to eat,” Lake said. “Casey’s has a pretty extensive menu in their food service portion.”
Lake said nearby residents have told him that they were ecstatic that the mobile home park was gone, including removal of 32 old mobile homes. Lake said the sale of the property is contingent upon city approvals.
Council members Frank Jerome and Tim Shuffett said that placing the pedestrian-friendly restriction on the property would actually make it seem out of character for other properties farther east on State Street and for similar types of businesses elsewhere.
Bergman said that the city’s comprehensive plan describes general character areas for different parts of the city, but it did not break down State Street into separate, smaller-character areas. A previous State Street study made suggestions along those lines, but it was never adopted as part of the city’s comprehensive plan, Bergman said.
The council voted 7-0 in favor of the changes.
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