Mesa council approves first Terrible’s convenience store in the East Valley

A Terrible’s convenience store with a fuel station has received the OK from the Mesa City Council to go up near the southwest corner of South Crismon Road and East Hampton Avenue in Council District 5.

KFH Crismon & Hampton LLC was requesting that the council approve rezoning the 1.3-acre site from planned employment park with a planned area development overlay to limited commercial.

At its Monday meeting, the council unanimously voted to approve the rezoning, as well as a site plan review and a special-use permit. The rezoning was on the council’s consent agenda in which all items are handled through one motion and vote.

The is Terrible’s first convenience store in the East Valley. The Nevada-based company has Valley locations in Phoenix and Peoria. It also serves California, Nevada and Utah.

The convenience store will be 4,689 square feet and the fuel canopy station will be 4,156 square feet.

A special-use permit is required because the Terrible’s includes a fuel station.

“Along the east side of the building is the main entrance with an amenity and along the west side of the building are benches, wall art and landscaping facing the residential development to the west of the site,” according to a staff report.

The store will also have pedestrian pathways circling the building and connecting to the residential site to the west and to the public sidewalk along Crismon Road.

A Sherwin Williams store and a Dutch Bros. are located near the Terrible’s.

The convenience store and fuel station were discussed by the council during its Oct. 22 study session.

“This is actually the last vacant commercial piece with frontage on Crismon Road,” Evan Balmer of the city’s planning division told the council at the Oct. 22 meeting. “There are two main access points through shared drives. So, there would be no new curb cuts installed, no new drive accesses on Crismon. They’re using the existing facilities.”

Councilmember Alicia Goforth, who represents Council District 5, said at the Oct. 22 meeting that she was still fundamentally opposed to the Terrible’s rezoning request.

“I had concerns about giving up more planned employment parcels. I don’t like doing that and we don’t have many,” Goforth said. “I understand this was a small part of a larger (planned employment parcel) and I’m not sure that it makes sense to preserve an acre and a half or whatever it is. I understand that.”

Goforth also said she was concerned about bringing a “vehicle-heavy service station” to the area.

“I had concerns about that, but I think staff has done a great job of eliminating those as much as is possible for the use that’s coming in,” she said. “Again — not super happy with the use because of those two concerns but I think staff has done as much as they can do to alleviate some of (those concerns).”

On Sept. 23, 2026, the city’s planning and zoning board unanimously voted to recommend the rezoning, site plan and special-use permit request to council.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.