A unanimous vote Thursday by Kansas City Council members ended the year-long debate between QuikTrip and the West Plaza Neighborhood Association.
The debate was over QuikTrips' plan to expand its Westport store on Westport Road between Roanoke Parkway and Mercier Street in Kansas City, Missouri.
This comes after the expansion faced numerous challenges, including proposal denial from the Kansas City Planning Commisioners and much discussion with the West Plaza Neighborhood Association.
QuikTrip originally wanted to shut down Mercier Street to expand its Westport store. The West Plaza Neighborhood Association opposed closing Mercier.
For one year, the two sides were locked in a battle that was resolved Thursday when the City Council unanimously approved the plan with a few changes.
Mercier Street will remain open, but it will continue to be part of QuikTrip's expansion. Both sides agreed that it's a compromise.
"It still works great for us, and we feel it's a plan that accomplishes a lot of goals for a lot of people involved, and we feel at the end of the day it’s going to be a great plan for the area and I think that everyone will be happy,” said Andrew Smith, QuikTrip Real Estate Manager.
"This has been a very difficult process and took a lot longer than it needed to, and it was because QuikTrip was so unwilling to compromise with us," West Plaza Neighborhood Association Vice President Julie Tenenbaum said. "There was a lot of compromising in this situation. We did the giant share of compromising."
Because of the changes, QuikTrip still has to clear some hurdles before it can start expanding the Westport QuikTrip.
