The Ceres Planning Commission on Monday approved a tentative parcel map within the Ceres Gateway Center to allow the construction of a Tractor Supply store.
The commission OK’d subdividing the Ceres Gateway Center’s last remaining parcel of 4.61 acres into a three-acre commercial lot and a 1.61-acre parcel for a drainage basin.
The center, located south of Service Road between Mitchell Road and Highway 99, has been developed with an In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks, Chipotle and soon to open an Ono Hawaiian BBQ, Quick Quack Car Wash and Union 76 gas station with some kind of fast-food shop. A Woodspring Inn & Suites has also been approved for the center and expected to break ground this spring.
The commission also voted 5-0 to approve a Specific Plan Site Plan to allow the 21,702-square-foot Tractor Supply, garden center, outdoor display and forage shed. A total of 89 parking spaces are proposed along with landscaping.
“The project fits in with the overall flow and previous designs for the Ceres Gateway Center,” commented Christopher Hoem, the city’s director of Community Development.
The Ceres Tractor Supply store would be seven miles from the nearest Tractor Supply which is on Walnut Avenue in Turlock.
Tractor Supply sells clothing and apparel, pet supplies, work boots and shoes, and farm and ranch supplies such as ag fencing and gates, sprayers, tanks and pumps, tractor parts, livestock handling equipment, and ATV and UTV attachments. It does not, however, sell tractors.
“It has a regional commercial design so we’re expecting that this store will draw people from not only our city but the surrounding community and it will be a good addition to also our sales tax base,” said Hoem.
The first Tractor Supply store opened in 1938 in Minot, N.D., and as of Dec. 31, the company operated 2,066 Tractor Supply stores in 49 states. In October, Tractor Supply acquired 81 stores from Orscheln Farm and Home that will be rebranded to Tractor Supply by the end of 2023.
In other action the commission approved splitting a 2.59-acre parcel at 948 Richland Avenue into two separate parcels to build two single-family homes.
