A gas station owner has hired a legal firm in an attempt to block construction of a Maverik convenience store and fueling station project and the competition that would result.

In November the Ceres Planning Commission approved the 5,951-square-foot Maverik for Mitchell Road just off the northbound freeway onramp. The station proposes 24 fuel pumps on at the southeast corner of Mitchell and Rohde roads. 

Livingston gas station owner Sunny Ghai, who owns the new Union 76 station across the street and the building that houses Nick the Greek, filed an appeal of the commission’s approval. That appeal was supposed to be heard at Monday’s Ceres City Council meeting but it was postponed to an undetermined date. Because the public hearing was advertised, the council has to allow public comment.

Ghai’s attorneys are framing their fight against Maverik based on claims of inadequate environmental review outlined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A similar fight was waged against the Walmart Supercenter project which delayed that project over 14 years.

Councilwoman Cerina Otero recused herself from considering the appeal since she was one of those on the commission who supported the project in November.

Diane Kindermann of the Sacramento law firm of Abbott & Kindermann that specializes in land use issues spoke and asked the council to consider her points during this “hiatus while we are waiting for this to be scheduled.”

She faulted the staff report that was used by the commission when it made its determination to approve Maverik. Kindermann said the report was “problematic” because its findings were not substantiated with evidence.

“They made a finding that the project was consistent with two other CEQA documents but there’s no evidence or explanation to support that, and that’s a violation of CEQA unfortunately,” Kindermann said.

She also faulted the mitigation measures to lessen impacts on the area when the project is built.

Kindermann also accused the city of not analyzing the full impacts of Maverik. However, there was environmental review of the 11.9-acre SamBella Plaza commercial subdivision map, of which Maverik is a component. SamBella was approved in May 2021 as six separate commercially zoned parcels and a storm drainage basin parcel.

Kindermann signaled a legal semantics fight brewing over the Maverik traffic study, which was delivered to the city on Friday.

“It’s dated three months after your approval so it doesn’t matter what it says, you can’t rely on it for your project approval which happened in November,” the attorney said. “You have to go back and approve our appeal … deny the use permit, go back if the applicant chooses to resubmit the project, then put that in your record, then make your decision.”

She added that “whatever it says, that’s terrific, you can’t use it to support your findings and your approval of the project.”

At the November Maverik public hearing, city of Ceres Community Development Director Lea Simvoulakis noted that cumulative environmental studies – one as recent as 2019 –have already examined the impacts from the highway commercial area.

“We have trucks here already,” she said. “The traffic exists so those trucks aren’t fueling here.”

Caltrans offered no comments against the project.

Last November representatives of police and fire labor unions voiced their favor of Maverik because of the added tax dollars expected to be reaped for city services.

As Ghai argued against Maverik in November, he disputed city claims that Ceres would reap new annual taxes of over $670,000, because the new station would reduce sales and corresponding taxes from existing businesses.

He also suggested that any eatery offered inside Maverik wouldn’t best the choices offered in the Ceres Gateway Center across the street.

In November Senior Planner Teddie Hernandez said the location makes sense because Mitchell Road is a major truck route, with the closest commercial truck fueling stations in Livingston and Ripon.

Fourteen regular gas pumps and 10 truck diesel pumps are in the plans, as well as EV charging stations and an RV dump station. Because it will have no overnight parking, Maverik will not be a traditional truck stop.

Approximately 15 new full-time jobs would be created by the project.

Joe Samra, manager of the Gateway Car Wash located a block north of the proposed Maverik, said he’s concerned about additional traffic impacting his business.

“When you allow businesses to come in and monopolize the area like you did with Quick Quack, not really understanding how they monetize their business – they set up a network – small businesses can’t compete with that network,” said Samra. “They advertise. we don’t have millions of dollars to compete with that.”

The Maverik site is located near an existing Chevron and AM/PM filling stations to the north at Mitchell and Service roads.

A resident of Redwood Road opined that the Maverik is proposed “in the wrong place,” saying the “interchange is a total disaster already.”

City Manager Doug Dunford said 75 percent of the country’s produce moves down Highway 99 in trucks and that “all we’re trying to do is grab some of that to have them refill.” He cited the example of how three-fourths of Livingston’s city general fund comes from taxes generated by their truck stop.