Truck stop and gas station chain eyes Sidney Baker Street site near I-10

Kerrville’s Planning and Zoning Commission will decide Thursday whether to clear the way for a convenience store, auto fueling station and truck stop at the northeast corner of Highway 16 and Interstate 10 — a project that would bring a Yorktown-based chain called The Texan Stores into the local market for the first time.

The commission meets at 4 p.m. at City Hall. The only public hearing item on the agenda is Case PZ-2026-16, a bundle of three conditional use permits covering roughly 12.57 acres on Sidney Baker Street, on and around the site of a former Exxon station.

What’s proposed

The site plan, submitted by RMA Architects & Interior Designers, shows a 20,074-square-foot building branded “The Texan” with 216 auto parking spaces, seven handicap spaces and 25 truck spaces. Fuel storage would include 30,000 gallons split between unleaded and super, another 30,000 gallons split between diesel and ethanol-free, and 20,000 gallons split between biodiesel and diesel exhaust fluid. Two future retail pads — one at 44,236 square feet, one at 57,584 square feet — are shown flanking the main site but aren’t part of this application.

The property sits within about 325 feet of the 100-year floodplain, which is what triggers the CUP requirement. City code prohibits fuel sales and truck stops outright within 100 feet of a floodplain and requires a conditional use permit between 100 and 500 feet. A truck stop with fueling station also needs a CUP in a General Commercial (C-3) district, which covers part of the property; the rest is zoned Planned Development approved for C-3 use.

The developer asked the city to package all three permits into one request, arguing the project won’t move forward piecemeal.

Who’s behind it

The Texan Stores was founded in 2008 by Pete and Patricia Dlugosch of Yorktown, Texas, starting with a single ground-up store in their hometown. The chain has grown gradually since — picking up two existing Yorktown stores in 2010, then adding locations in Three Rivers (2014), Cuero (2017), Victoria and two West Texas sites (2018), and Goliad (2020), according to the company’s website. Corporate offices remain in Yorktown. Kerrville would be a significant step up in market size for the chain, which has largely built along the U.S. 87/183 corridor between San Antonio and the Coastal Bend.

Staff take

City staff is recommending approval, with conditions. Planning staff notes the parcel falls in the Community Commercial land-use category under the Kerrville 2050 plan and finds the proposed uses consistent with that designation. Staff also points out there’s no adjacent residential development — the site is bordered by future commercial land to the north and east, I-10 to the south and Highway 16 to the west — and that the absence of showers, laundry or a lounge should discourage overnight truck parking.

Beyond the standard development standards for fuel sales (pump islands set back from rights-of-way and residential zoning, emergency shutoffs, screening, lighting limits, etc.), staff is proposing three specific conditions tied to the truck stop: no expansion of parking areas without prior city approval, vegetative screening around parking if noise complaints are validated, and compliance with all the supplementary fuel-sales standards.

Process so far

The city sent notification letters to seven adjacent property owners on Aug. 20, published notice in the Hill Country Community Journal on Aug. 12, and posted the hearing sign on Aug. 21. As of when the agenda packet was drafted, no public comments had been submitted.

If the commission approves the CUPs Thursday, the case would still need to clear City Council before construction could begin.

The commission will also take up routine business first, approving minutes from its Aug. 6 meeting, at which it approved a CUP for a handyman/contractor business on Schreiner Street and a zoning change on Sidney Baker Street from General Commercial to Medium Density Residential.