16 May 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A Love’s Travel Stop is one step closer to being built 10 minutes north of downtown Wichita after the City Council approved re-zoning plans at Tuesday’s meeting.
People who live in the nearby Northeast Millair neighborhood are not happy with the plans and tried to speak at the council meeting.
Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple stated there would be no public hearing because the official hearing was held at the Metropolitan Planning Commission’s meeting last month.
“If we were to reopen a hearing in violation of our ordinance and policy, frankly, it wouldn’t be fair to the other side as well who were there at the appropriate hearing,” said Mayor Whipple.
“Would you want Love’s in your backyard? Would you,” said Northeast Millair Neighborhood Association President Aujanae Bennett.
City Council members said Tuesday’s vote would not have stopped the Love’s from moving into town.
Instead, it changes zoning to allow for signage, RV hookups, and electric car charging stations.
“For me, I didn’t have a problem with those things. The concerns about the light pollution and the signs were answered. The graphic that kind of showed where the sign would be at compared to the neighborhood didn’t align with some of the concerns I heard,” said Wichita District 1 City Councilman Brandon Johnson.
Residents said this could cause issues for the neighborhood, such as busier roads, human trafficking, and taking business from local shops.
“We are already dealing with the environmental injustice of the last 30 years for them not telling us about the 29th and Grove contamination,” said Bennett.
“No other words, it really feels like a slow genocide of our neighborhood between the water pollution and now with truck stops the air pollution,” said Syeeda Echols, who lives nearby the planned project.
Mayor Whipple said the council will ensure more contamination doesn’t happen.
“We are on top of ensuring that this meets the environmental standards and also is properly repurposed. You don’t want in some of these areas residential housing this type of development that helps contain the site and helps reactivate it,” said Mayor Whipple.
Those who live close by said they were not made aware of the plans until last week.
“Apparently, they gave a notice of 750 feet from the site, but that would only include about 10 or 15 houses, some of which are abandoned. When in reality, there should have been notification given all the way up to Grove because there are hundreds of families that are going to be affected by this being built,” said Echols.
City council members agreed the notification process could be changed in the future.
“The notification process is not good. State law says 200 feet we have an escalating notification area depending on development size, but I’ve continually said that we should be notifying 1,000 feet minimum and if we want to escalate up, but I think people should know what is going on,” said Councilman Johnson.
“I think that is something that we should look towards, but again the notification did go, and during the official public hearing, there wasn’t anybody from my understanding anyone who spoke in opposition,” said Mayor Whipple.
The neighbors said they plan to take action to try and stop the project.
The next step; City Council will hold a second reading for the rezoning. If approved, plans can move forward for a truck stop.
KSN reached out to Love’s for a timeline on the project. A spokesperson said they were only able to provide this statement:
“We are pleased with the result of today’s council meeting. Love’s is continuing to do its due diligence on a location in Wichita, and today’s outcome is a positive step in that process.”