Aurora City Council to consider proposal for QuikTrip gas station
The Aurora City Council is set to consider at its meeting next week a proposal to build a QuikTrip gas station on Eola Road near Interstate 88.
The gas station would be located on the southeast corner of Eola Road and Diehl Road, which is across the street from the CyrusOne data center and a short ways away from Metea Valley High School. It is expected to hold 16 gas fueling spots and four diesel fueling spots, two of which can accommodate tractor trailers.
Those two tractor-trailer-ready diesel fueling stations would make this gas station count as a truck stop under Aurora city ordinances, but the facility wouldn't have any of the typical amenities of a truck stop like showers or even places to park tractor trailers.
Plus, overnight parking would be banned.
'It's part of our name, QuikTrip,' said Ali Bukhres, a company representative who presented the proposal to the Aurora City Council's Committee of the Whole on Tuesday. 'Just come in, make it a quick trip: grab your food, drink and then head on the road.'
In addition to items typically available at a convenience store, including beer and wine, made-to-order food items like sandwiches and tacos would also be available for grab-and-go purchases, according to Bukhres' presentation.
In-house secret shoppers would make sure the store is held to QuikTrip's 'very rigorous' alcohol sale standards, he said.
Both Bukhres and city staff said that the new gas station would not increase traffic in the area. Plus, truck traffic from I-88 would be minimal because of the gas station's low visibility from the interstate as well as similar offerings in the area, Bukhres said.
'We're not a traffic generator, we're a traffic capturer. That's why we chose this site,' he said.
The site would have a number of different entrances, including a full access entrance on Diehl Road, a right-in and right-out entrance also on Diehl Road but close to its intersection with Eola Road and a right-in only entrance on Eola Road.
A report included with the meeting's agenda said city staff believe the location is 'highly favorable' for this use since it is positioned along major streets and is in a predominantly non-residential area.
The site is also accessible to property owners along Eola Road as well as the customers and employees of the industrial area along Diehl Road, according to the staff report.
Plus, since it is close to I-88, it would be an 'ideal stop' for those coming and going to the highway, which would ensure 'steady traffic flow and a broad customer base,' the report said.
During his presentation, Bukhres touted QuikTrip as a socially responsible company that is dedicated to its employees and sensitive to environmental concerns. For example, he said the company only uses double-walled fuel holding tanks with multiple sensors, above and beyond what is legally required.
The company also donates 5% of its profits to charitable organizations within local communities it operates in and is a National Safe Place location for youth in danger, he said.
Employees are retained long-term and internally promoted, Bukhres said, and even the CEO started out by working in one of the company's stores. QuikTrip also offers tuition assistance, disaster relief, scholarship and stock ownership programs, he said.
Two items related to the gas station are set to go before the Aurora City Council at its meeting next Tuesday.
One, an ordinance, would grant the gas station a conditional use permit. The other, a resolution, would approve a change to the underlying plan for the lot to include the new gas station.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Is UK data centre development demand sustainable?
Deloitte partner for AI and data, Clare Mortimar, has spent her entire career helping governments figure out how to extract value from their data. 'And during that time when could you imagine the Prime Minister talking about data centres?' she says addressing an audience at London's AI Summit 2025. Today, AI is driving the conversation around data centres. "I've been waiting for this all my life,' says Mortimar only half in jest. The sheer development speed of AI, unlike any other historical technology shift, has created an exponential requirement for compute power. And this has seen data centres become a hot topic for policy-makers courting investment from AI developers and hyperscalers. GlobalData forecasts that revenues from data centre services (including application hosting and colocation services) will reach $125bn worldwide by the end of 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.75% for the period 2023-2028. According to the research and analysis company, investment in data centres globally has surged since 2023 driven by digitalisation and AI, and is set to accelerate even more rapidly in 2025. At the UK's International Investment Summit in October 2024, CyrusOne, ServiceNow, and CoreWeave collectively announced UK data center infrastructure investments totaling £6.3bn. The investment reinforces the UK government's move to classified data centres as Critical National Infrastructure which provides the industry with enhanced government support and security status, encouraging further investment But despite high levels of investment, GlobalData construction economist Nicolas Psaroudis says that the timelines to build data centres, typically spanning two to four years, could mean supply will not keep pace with demand. 'Today, AI workloads are more power-intensive than ever, with global data centre energy demand expected to more than triple in the next five years,' says Psaroudis, noting that ensuring sustainable, scalable data centre development will be essential not only to fuel AI's potential but also to manage the substantial energy footprint that comes with it. But addressing exponential demand for compute power sustainably is a growing pain point for the UK data centre industry. 'This is a very controversial conversation, because people don't always agree,' says Danny Quinn, managing director of Scottish data centre company DataVita. 'Some of the world's leading scientists really are quite firm about the fact they're [data centres] going to do so much good for the world, that actually, on balance, this isn't going to be a bad thing,' says Quinn. The key sustainability issues, when it comes to AI, are carbon and water. 'There is nothing more you can do to impact sustainability than where your data center is located. Everything else falters into comparison,' says Quinn. 'But you still have data centres in places like India where fossil fuels are being used more. It's not all renewable energy, despite how big tech companies want to pitch how good their work is,' he adds. Quinn's home country of Scotland is a renewable energy hub. For every kilowatt of power, Scotland generates roughly 30 grams of CO2. 'If you move that to London, it's 300 grams of CO2 for the exact same data center, for the exact same load. And it doesn't matter if someone says they're using green energy, that's paperwork in the background. It's not the reality,' notes Quinn. 'If you move it to somewhere like Poland, it's 800 grams of CO2. Yet, some of the largest technology companies are still deploying massive developments into these locations,' he adds. Why are they doing that? Put simply, because it's cheap. Quinn sees a real obligation for businesses to stop green washing, and to start making procurement decisions that are not based on financial metrics alone. Then there is water. By 2027, the OECD projects that AI will require 4.2–6.6bn m³ per year. This is more water than the entire annual use for a country like Denmark, or nearly half that of the UK. Again, location can be a mitigating factor. 'In cooler climates, you can use drier chillers, which run in technological closed loops, so you don't have to refill the water. So that cuts the water usage by about 100 times,' says Quinn. The conundrum for policymakers with sustainability goals in the UK and US, for example, is giving the private sector enough leeway for global competitiveness in AI while addressing the knock-on effect of the carbon emissions this creates. 'We've got some very clear net zero goals, a sustainability agenda that we all are passionate about for our future, and they're diametrically opposed [to AI development],' says Quinn. Senior vice president and managing director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa, Matt Harris, says data centre development should be approached from a whole life cycle perspective, from data centre location to building methods. 'The positive thing is that there is a huge amount of innovation happening in this space,' he adds. Harris notes that UK data centres, built over several decades do not use liquid cooling which can be up to 90% more energy efficient. 'We have to think about deploying at scale when it comes to infrastructure design. There's innovation coming around cooling technologies, some really neat startups re-utilising heat that is created in the process to heat a local swimming pool, for example," he says. Data centre developer Datum opened a new 24,000 ft² data centre, MCR2, in Manchester in June. Stephen Lorimer, VP of Professional Services for Salute, the company that designed and built the data centre, says that despite the budgets committed to AI development including the government's latest promise of £2bn in public funds, infrastructure need to scale with AI investment. 'But at the moment it isn't,' he adds. If infrastructure is left as an afterthought, the gap could become a national vulnerability, warns Lorimer. 'The government talks about AI breakthroughs, but rarely divulges the power, cooling and land needed to support them,' he says. 'More broadly, it's also clear the UK lacks a coordinated national strategy for this digital infrastructure, unlike some of our global peers. If we don't act, the UK could become a net importer of compute power, outsourcing both innovation and control to more established countries,' says Lorimer. It's clear that the data centre industry needs policy support. Addressing challenges around planning delays and uncertainty in the sector around energy availability are sure to slow down the development of new UK data centres. It remains to be seen whether policy will keep apace with the UK's new and unprecedented infrastructure demand. "Is UK data centre development demand sustainable?" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
New chief legal officer, sustainability director for city approved by Aurora City Council
Two new hires for the city of Aurora were approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday, including a new chief legal officer and the city's first-ever director of sustainability. Since Mayor John Laesch took office in May, the city has hired a number of new employees in upper management to replace those who resigned or retired when former Mayor Richard Irvin left office. Following Tuesday's City Council meeting, the latest hires are Yordana Wysocki, the city's next corporation counsel, and Alison Lindburg, who will be taking on a newly-created position as the city's director of sustainability. The two appointments were on the City Council's Committee of the Whole meeting agenda last week, but aldermen did not discuss the matter publicly at that time, according to past reporting. Both hires were approved unanimously by the council on Tuesday evening. Per her resume, Wysocki currently works at Hervas, Condon & Bersani, P.C., an Itasca-based law firm that specializes in local government law and litigation. A partner since 2016, she represents local governments as general counsel, conducts employee misconduct investigations and gives recommendations to local governments on employee discipline and employment policy changes, among other things. She's also the incoming chair of the Illinois State Bar Association's Local Government Section Council and has been involved with local bar associations and The Legacy Project, which promotes women leadership in local government, her resume says. As the new corporation counsel, Wysocki will lead the city's law department, according to past reporting. Per the job description from the city, she'll provide legal advice and counsel to elected officials and upper city management, review contracts and agreements, draft and negotiate agreements for the city and represent the city for legal actions, among other responsibilities. At Tuesday's meeting, Laesch noted that outgoing corporation counsel Richard Veenstra will help with the transition. As for the newly-created director of sustainability job, Alison Lindburg comes from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, where she's currently the director of building codes and policy, according to her resume. In that role, she helps several states and their municipalities implement energy efficiency policies like energy codes, leads research on decarbonization and energy efficiency in buildings, among other duties. According to her resume, she also currently serves on the Illinois Energy Code Advisory Council, Illinois Building Energy Hub Advisory Board, Chicago Sustainable Development Policy Committee and the International Code Council Sustainability Membership Council, of which she is the chair. Per the job description from the city, her responsibilities are set to include, among a number of other things, developing and managing a city sustainability plan, creating a 'public bank or green investment mechanism' for sustainability projects and assisting in updating Aurora's vehicle fleet to 'a carbon-free standard.'
CBS News
20-06-2025
- CBS News
Aurora residents hungry for grocery store in growing Murphy Creek neighborhood
Aurora is now the third-largest city in Colorado, and it's still growing. As more people move into rapidly expanding communities like Aurora Highlands and Murphy Creek, many find themselves facing an unexpected challenge, which is getting groceries. Murphy Creek has a quiet neighborhood built around a golf course, offering a scenic and active lifestyle. For longtime resident Gretchen Dirks, moving to the eastern plains of Aurora back in 2007 was a dream come true. The Murphy Creek neighborhood in Aurora. CBS "I wanted a house. I wanted a yard. I wanted to be able to enjoy being outside with my dogs," Dirks said. "Murphy Creek is a unique place because it's a golf course community. It just has this really cool feel. It's an outdoorsy feel. People are active." Basic retail is one thing that is missing in the suburb, and most importantly, a grocery store. Aurora City Councilman Steve Sundberg is working to solve that issue. As a Murphy Creek resident himself since 2003, he understands the frustration. "People are, quote, unquote, hungry for a grocery store," Sundberg said. "It's probably an 8-mile drive to a grocery store. And Southlands to the south is probably a good 15 to 20 minutes, depending on traffic." According to Sundberg, grocery chains like Safeway and Walmart previously considered building in the area, but both companies backed out. However, he remains optimistic that change is coming. There are a few signs of progress. A QuikTrip gas station and convenience store are set to open soon at the Lamar Landing development on 6th Avenue and Gun Club Road, giving the community its third fuel and snack option. The Murphy Creek neighborhood in Aurora. CBS Meanwhile, a major development called Aurora One is in the works at the northwest corner of Stephen D. Hogan Parkway and E-470. If fully realized, Aurora One would be the first major retail hub in East Aurora, and it would finally include a full grocery store. "The good news is retail and grocery are coming. The difficult news is it's taking a while," Sundberg explained. Delays related to storm drainage, permitting, and other infrastructure issues have slowed the project's momentum. But if everything moves forward, Sundberg says retail signings could begin by the end of the year, with construction potentially wrapping up by late 2026. Until then, Murphy Creek residents will have to continue traveling miles just to pick up a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread. A reality city leaders hope won't last much longer.
