Shell Gas Station Expansion Sparks Debate

Courtesy of City of Rancho Cordova

As owners of the Shell gas station at Sunrise Boulevard and Zinfandel Drive seek to expand their business, mobile home residents in the park located just behind the business are pleading for traffic relief.

The owners of the station are hoping to add 1,000 square-feet to their existing store. The new store will carry more groceries as well as have an expanded liquor section. Residents of the Mobile Country Club, which sits just behind the gas station, are worried the traffic on Zinfandel Drive will become even worse if the expansion is improved by the city.

“There might be some disaster, and we have no emergency escape plan in that park,” Norma Bohannan of the Golden State Mobile Home Owners League said. “All we can do is go into that little bottleneck area on Zinfandel.”

The stretch of Zinfandel Drive next to the gas station is the only way in and out for tenants of the Mobile Country Club. The small road is congested with traffic coming from both the gas station and the popular In-N-Out Burger next door to it.

Despite the city’s traffic analysis to the contrary, residents of the mobile home park believe Shell’s expansion will make their only exit even more crowded.

“It’s a long, tedious sit,” resident Betty Storey said. “That whole area is so tremendously impacted by the traffic we have now. Add people coming in to a mini store… we just think it’s a very poor idea to have anything more added to that congestion.”

Their new layout will eliminate one of the station’s exits on to Zinfandel Drive, and Tecta Associates architect Ahmad Mohazab believes this will actually relieve the congestion on the tiny strip of road.

“We have actually contained the traffic going out on Zinfandel so there’s only one way out,” Mohazab said. “This solution… is making it better.”

Vice Mayor Ken Cooley said that the traffic situation needs to be addressed before the Shell owners can move forward on their plans.

“I think we need to have a better mobility strategy,” Cooley said. Cooley believes adding another lane on that stretch of Zinfandel would help ease the congestion on the road.

Public Works Director Cyrus Abhar agrees, and is working on improving the situation.

“We need additional right-of-way,” Abhar said. “It’s a very difficult challenge for us.”