Public Hearing June 12th Regarding Sale of Former District 742 Media Building to Make Way for a Gas Station

(KNSI) — Coming up at the June 12th St. Cloud City Council meeting is a public hearing regarding the St. Cloud Planning Commission’s recommendation to sell the former District 742 Media Service Center to Holiday Stationstores for $1.3 million.

After voters approved building Tech High School, the city signed a purchase agreement for the land in 2019 for $1 from the St. Cloud School District. The old school was renovated and turned into the new city hall. The City Council rezoned the property from R2, Single and Two-Family Residential, to PUD, Planned Unit Development and authorized its sale in March 2022, which has since been posted and marketed for sale. Officials say Holiday was the only entity to offer fair market value for the land.

The company plans to raze the old building and open a 24 hour, 5,200-square-foot convenience store with seven fuel pumps and a 3,150-square-foot carwash on the site. St. Cloud Community Development Director Matt Glaesman told KNSI News, “the company has agreed to a number of design or aesthetic changes to the proposed building, the canopy, and the landscaping, so some changes are coming. One, [is] a photometric plan that shows how much light would be shed, and some noise modeling to really take a look at that carwash, what kind of noise would be generated and how that’s shut off into the adjoining area.”

A community petition was circulated and sent to the city with over 100 signatures asking the council to vote against the measure. There were also several pages of public comments containing letters and emails voicing various concerns regarding traffic, noise and aesthetics.

The store would be open 24 hours a day, but the carwash would close overnight. Landscaping, building, and signage design standards would be adopted as required elements of the project.

The meeting gets underway at 6:00 p.m.

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