Owner of San Juan Bautista’s Windmill Market takes plan to the
city council
Plans for a gas station at the main entrance to San Juan
Bautista in the parking lot of Windmill Market will come before the
city council on Sept. 21 for approval.
The city’s planning commission recently forwarded the plan to
the council for approval, opening the door for a business owned by
Jim Gibson to drive more customers to his store and more shoppers
to the historic downtown.
Owner of San Juan Bautista’s Windmill Market takes plan to the city council
Plans for a gas station at the main entrance to San Juan Bautista in the parking lot of Windmill Market will come before the city council on Sept. 21 for approval.
The city’s planning commission recently forwarded the plan to the council for approval, opening the door for a business owned by Jim Gibson to drive more customers to his store and more shoppers to the historic downtown.
“Logically, we should get the approval,” said Gibson, who, along with Hank So, owns the Windmill Market development at the corner of Hwy. 156 and The Alameda. “We’re making an investment in San Juan to increase traffic to our location, and by extension it would help the rest of the town.”
Despite what he sees as the economic benefits of the proposed gas station, which would be the city’s second such business, Gibson is bracing for opposition.
“‘No’ is almost like automatic in the city of San Juan Bautista,” he said. “Say ‘no’ and worry about it later. That’s what they do in San Juan – they say ‘no.’ We’ll see what happens.”
Gibson’s plan for the gas station proposes four fueling stations that can handle up to eight vehicles at a time.
The station would fit into the width of one row of parking spaces at the shopping center, which also includes a pizza restaurant, beauty parlor and the city post office.
The proposed station does not yet have a corporate affiliate and may not, Gibson previously indicated, to keep the cost of fuel down.
Noting that some critics are opposed to the station because of its proximity to San Juan School, which is across the street from Windmill Market, Gibson said he doesn’t expect any additional traffic impacts for the school.
“Anybody that comes into our shopping center is turning left and they don’t cross either school crosswalk,” he said. “If they want us to not do something because the school’s there, they’d have to shut down the whole town” because The Alameda is the main entrance to town.
Plans for the station originally called for it to have an art deco feel to it, though Gibson said the Planning Commission preferred “that we make something more in line with the current architecture,” such as a replica water tower with the gas station sign on top.
“It’s not finalized, though it would have some functionality,” Gibson said. “There would be room in the shaded area beneath it if we wanted to advertise what was available in the store or even put some historical displays there.”
The San Juan Bautista City Council is expected to consider the gas station application at its 6 p.m. Sept. 21 meeting at city hall, 311 Second St.
