By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted July 16, 2008
The One-Stop store in Moapa is one step closer to re-opening after having its doors closed for the past two years. The Moapa Town Advisory Board voted unanimously to grant a Use Permit and a Waiver of Development Standards to the convenience store at its meeting held Thursday, July 10.
The request was presented to the Board by the store’s part-owner, Jeff Longman. “This building has been a convenience store for many years,” Longman said. “We are proposing to reopen the store. But we were told that the special Use Permit had lapsed in the time that we have bought it. We are just asking that this item be accepted so we can get the store running again.”
Neighbors in the area had no problem with allowing the store to return to operation. But some residents stated that they would rather not see approval of the Waiver of Development Standards which requested that landscape requirements be waived.
“I don’t think it would take too much capital to make that little store look nice,” said one resident who lives near the store. “I would really like to see the place to be improved at least on the outside.”
But Longman stated that it might take time to be able to put in those types of improvements. “With the economy being what it is, we have been hit pretty hard at this time,” Longman said.
Longman said that his group had owned the building for about two years. “We’ve taken a hit on it for two years in trying to go through the process to get it opened back up again,” he said.
In addition, Moapa resident, David Osborn, the tenant that will operate the store, had also put up significant capital to pay the lease while approvals were going through the county, Longman said.
“This community really needs this store right now,” Longman said. “Everyone I’ve talked to is in support of having us go in as soon as possible.”
Longman said that it was his intention to beautify the building and eventually make it look nice. “But we’d like to get the store open so that we can afford to do those things,” he said.
MTAB member, Craig Wolfley agreed that completely waiving the landscape requirements would be a mistake. “We’ve got to do something because what we’ve done in Moapa for far too long is to just let whoever do whatever they want and we haven’t gotten much out of that,” Wolfley said.
Wolfley suggested that the waiver be granted for a period of one year. This would allow the store to open and function. It would then be subject to review in a year’s time and the necessary landscaping would be required at that time. Longman agreed to this condition.
The Board voted unanimously to approve Wolfley’s motion.
