ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — MotoMart is once again trying to build a gas station on the Missouri side of the Missisippi River next to the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, after St. Louis County officials rejected its first attempt last year.
Moto Inc., which is headquartered in Belleville and owns 79 gas stations in six Midwestern states, submitted plans to build a convenience store with gas pumps and an automated tunnel car wash on 2.94 acres at 3800 and 3850 Koch Road in south St. Louis County, directly off the first Missouri exit from Interstate 255. A public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 6 by the St. Louis County Planning Commission.
The convenience store would total 5,365 square feet, with another 1,000 square feet for fast food and 40 parking spaces, according to county filings. A detached drive-thru car wash would take another 2,223 square feet.
Development costs were not disclosed in county filings. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
A real estate listing for the property gives an asking price of $1.45 million, the same as requested last year. The land is currently vacant and zoned for industrial uses, designated as part of a flood plain. Bussen Quarries operates next door.
The new proposal is smaller than the plan for a travel plaza unveiled last year. It would have been built around a 40,000-square-foot structure. The Planning Commission recommended denial of that project because, among other reasons, it was “not aesthetically or visually appealing at this gateway into the county along the Mississippi River.”
The County Council gets final say, and the legislator for the area, Councilman Ernie Trakas, declined last year to bring the zoning to the council for a vote.
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