MANSFIELD — O’Reilly Auto Parts plans a new store along a heavily traveled section of Lexington Avenue, just south of the Kroger store.
City engineer Bob Bianchi and Mansfield City Council went on the record Tuesday night to help protect motorists as lawmakers approved a resolution to ensure the road into the new store will be the only point of entry/exit from Lexington Avenue.
Bianchi told council that the company, based in Springfield, Mo., purchased 6.1 acres at the site, but only plans to use a portion of it for its new store. An estimated 4.5 acres would still be available to develop.
The engineer said he had conversations with company officials about vehicle access to Lexington Avenue, aka U.S. 42.
“It’s called access management. That means we manage the access to a corridor to promote safety. The more driveways and entrances that we could squeeze in a very busy corridor, the more accidents we’re going to have,” Bianchi said.
“We’ve had accidents along this area associated with motorists coming in and out of places along this corridor. So I required them to do a traffic impact study related to access,” he said.
Bianchi said that study found “it would not be adverse to have one driveway permitted full access to this lot.”
He said his larger concern is what could happen in the future if O’Reilly decides to split the lot and sell portions of the area.
“Conversations we had in emails or whatever (about the single point of access) might have been lost along the way,” he said
The engineer said it would be appropriate for City Council to approve a resolution regarding the access management.
“We can record it at the county recorder’s office and it will be on the record through title searches,” he said.
“In addition to that, O’Reilly Auto Parts wrote a letter stating that if when they do split this (lot), the the access would be granted through their parking lot,” Bianchi said.
According to its website, O’Reilly Auto Parts was founded in 1957 and began with one store in Springfield, Mo.
There are currently 6,095 stores in 48 U.S. states and Puerto Rico and 62 stores in Mexico.
According to that website, there are three O’Reilly Auto Parts stores in Richland County at this point at 861 Park Ave. West in Mansfield, 1286 Ashland Road in Madison Township and 222 Mansfield Ave. in Shelby.