“There appeared to be a groundswell of petitions and letters before we even got to the Planning Board,” said John Kellogg, a land use planner with PCI who was representing the buyers in their bid for a zoning change. “They decided the best idea was to listen to the neighbors' concerns and withdraw the application.”
The people of Grant Creek are not against businesses that are already there, said Brian Walter, one of the leaders in the petition drive against the casino. That includes the three motels, Starbucks coffee, MacKenzie River Pizza and the Sevenar.
Walter is president of the Grantland Landowners Association and the Grant Creek Water Users Association and a member of the leadership team of the Grant Creek Neighborhood Council. He and resident Mike Mueller and others collected 299 signatures against the casino; more than 35 letters of protest went to the city from neighbors.
Big Sky Progress LLC, a subsidiary of Butte-based Town Pump, planned to expand the Sevenar store to add a casino with gaming machines and liquor service. It also planned another row of gas pumps, Kellogg said. It would have required a rezoning change to serve liquor and to expand the gasoline operation. Both would have been allowed by the city zoning designations but would need approval by the Missoula City Council.
Last week, Town Pump executives Mike Kenneally and Dan Sampson held a meeting with the Grant Creek neighbors.
“At the meeting, there was some well-established opposition to the idea of expanding Sevenar to include gaming machines,” Kellogg said.
Acquiring the zoning change was the only contingency in the buy-sell agreement between the Ryan family, which owns Sevenar, and the buyers.
“Unfortunately, I think the Ryan family is the ones that are going to be the most hurt by this,” Kellogg said.
The family is very disappointed, said Meggen Ryan, who helps run the Sevenar with her brother Mike and her mother, Marion, who owns it. The sale to Town Pump is off, and the family is looking for a buyer again.
“We knew it was a long shot,” she said. “We understand why the Grant Creek people don't want a casino. So Sevenar is for sale.”
The family is struggling to make a go of the business, Ryan said, and her mother is ready to retire. Her parents built the Sevenar in May 1994, naming it after their family of seven Ryans. It was the first business in the new commercial zone. The store did well. But changes in gasoline laws that the state Legislature made in 1998 meant that large-volume buyers of gas could buy gas for less and sell it for less than a family-owned store, she said. And last year's changes in tobacco taxes wiped out the margins on cigarette sales. Those two products were the backbone of convenience stores' income. Now something else has to bring in revenue.
“It's pretty hard to sell a convenience store unless there's something more attached to it, like a casino or a car wash,” she said.
Ryan doesn't fully understand the store's neighbors' protest. They didn't protest any of the other businesses when they came, including MacKenzie River Pizza, which serves beer and wine. Nobody raised the issues of traffic and congestion. And people raised the issue of “quality of life,” she said. Part of her dad's quality of life was hunting and fishing where the subdivisions are now.
The family is frustrated by people driving out of Grant Creek past their store to buy cheaper gas at Costco, something they know only anecdotally. Some people tell them they buy gas at both places.
“We need it to be Sevenar all the time,” she said.
Also, she said, Town Pump was planning to donate land in the parcel it was buying - which included part of Snowbowl's parking lot north of Sevenar - for a rescue station and future fire station.
“Town Pump would definitely pay better wages than we do, which would have been good for the whole community,” she said.
The neighborhood has a new realization of the need to support the Sevenar, Walter said.
“That's come to light that the folks at the Sevenar are really hurting,” she said. “Maybe we should pay more attention to trading there. I always buy my gas there.”
He personally would have no problem with a car wash, he said. The neighborhood is open to a larger conversation with the Sevenar owners.
“We have in mind meeting those folks and figuring out how we can help,” he said. “I think if we could work with them it'd be a happier situation.”
The Sevenar has always been a family-oriented store, he said, where people's kids can go to rent videos and buy bubblegum without parents worrying. MacKenzie River Pizza is welcome because it's a family restaurant. A casino would make a drastic departure from that atmosphere.
The neighborhood council is working on a beautification plan for the interchange area that will include new trees and shrubs for the median in front of the Sevenar. The new Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation headquarters will bring visitors from around the world, and the area should look nice, Walter said.
Grant Creek residents are very interested in an ambulance station that can be enlarged in the future for a fire station. They'd also like to see a Park and Ride and a city bus stop. And they'd like to see the parking lot improved to be used for the Grant Creek trailhead, a recreational trail they hope some day will go from the interstate to Snowbowl Road.
“We have a vision for that property different from a casino,” he said.
Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at gmerriam@missoulian.com
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