Signed to this petition are residents of Maplewood and Richmond Heights and Maplewood business owners.  We are signing this petition urging you to reject the relocation proposal of QuikTrip for one or more of the following reasons....

 1. Quik Trip admittedly has never developed a site this close to a school.  We believe there is a clear reason for that.  The location of a high volume, fast serve gas and convenience store in such close proximity to our middle school and high school as proposed will be a hazard to the safety of MRH students and staff.  We urge you to reject QuikTrip’s plans as presented on the basis that they have not satisfied the valid safety concerns of the MRH Board of Education and concerned citizens.

 2. Even if traffic at the intersection does not increase, the movement of vehicles in and out of the 1.6 acre space will skyrocket. Today very few cars are moving in and out of this space. With the proposed QT site, with their 52 parking spaces and additional space at their pumps, it is easy to see there will be hundreds per hour moving in and out of this space during peak times. The entrances and exits are few, with Martini being the most likely exit chosen to reach north bound Big Bend via Manchester east.  Therefore the current plan causes excessive traffic increases along Martini where buses are routed and students walk.

3. The upgrades to the site, ie better vision of the intersection and right hand turn lane on Big Bend South, will not offset the hazard of increased volume of cars entering the 1.6 acre site. It is easy to conclude that motorists seeking the fastest route to avoid the Manchester/Big Bend intersection will use a right turn North onto Martini. This will dramatically increase traffic around the school and in the neighborhood. Motorists seeking the speed of QuikTrip's convenience are in a hurry. We don't want them hurrying north on the narrow Martini drive.

 4. QuikTrip's concession to not load QuikTrip semi trucks during school hours does nothing to relieve the blockage of Martini during after hours activities, football games, theater productions, graduation ceremonies or dances etc. As it stands today, it is already difficult to even accommodate parking for a visiting football team's bus.

 5. Although QT claims they will not increase traffic to the intersection, they insist that their business model is a “must” for their growth. They insist upon this because they wish to be a destination business, a business consumers seek and drive specifically to. They wish to attract more customers and will with the new business model. So they obviously wish to increase traffic to what the Maplewood police say is the third most dangerous intersection in Maplewood.

 6. What of the vacated property? There is at this time only verbal promises from QT to remove tanks, repave and after a "year or so" take down the building and reseed the lot if they do not find a tenant. Something more needs to be done to make sure this does not become a Maplewood city eyesore or underutilized space.