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Commission recommends zone change to legalize convenience store, allow beer and wine sales at Maricopa gas station
Summary
The Planning Commission voted to recommend that the City Council rezone 1124 Maricopa Highway from Business Professional to General Commercial to correct a longstanding nonconforming convenience store and allow sale of beer and wine; commissioners attached a condition addressing on-site outdoor storage and noted ongoing code-compliance work on the site.
The Planning Commission on Feb. 18 recommended that the City Council rezone 1124 Maricopa Highway from Business Professional (BP) to General Commercial (C1), a change the applicant and staff said would bring an existing gas station and convenience store into conformance with the municipal code and allow beer-and-wine sales.
Planning staff described the property as a longstanding nonconforming gas station with a prior conditional use permit (CUP 96-6) and said that C1 zoning would make the current convenience store and sale of beer and wine allowed by right. Staff noted two other gas stations in the city operate with attached convenience stores and sell beer and wine in the C1 zone. The applicant’s representative, Evelyn Abbasi, told the commission the request is for beer and wine only — “not hard liquor” — and framed the application as a zoning alignment so a family-run business can remain competitive.
Commissioners discussed code-compliance and operational concerns tied to the site’s existing CUP and outdoor storage and asked staff to address those issues as part of the follow-up. Commissioner comments emphasized that the zoning recommendation is separate from code-compliance enforcement and that the commission could recommend a condition to the council addressing outdoor storage and CUP items. The applicant said she would agree to remove the back storage unit if added as a condition.
The commission voted to recommend approval of the zone change to the City Council and included the recommended condition addressing outdoor storage/CUP compliance. The recommendation now moves to the City Council for final action.
Why it matters: rezoning will regularize a long-standing nonconforming use on a primary thoroughfare and would permit beer and wine sales like other convenience stores on Maricopa Highway. Commissioners and staff framed the change as a zoning correction while flagging outstanding operational and compliance items the city will pursue separately.
