The proposed Maverik station approved by the city two years ago has been freed from the legal challenges intended to halt its construction, according interim City Manager Steve Williams.
“The city received the court’s ruling on Sept. 29 that the petitioner’s writ of mandate was denied,” said Williams.
The project’s plans are currently being checked by the city building inspector. Once building checks are completed and permits issued construction can commence on the 5,951-square-foot Maverik station project.
Maverik proposes 14 regular vehicle fuel pumps, six commercial truck fuel pumps, truck scales, EV charging stations and an RV dump station.
The Courier contacted Todd Meyers, Maverik’s senior site development manager, who did not return our phone call.
The facility was approved by the Ceres Planning Commission in November 2024 and survived an August 2025 appeal to the Ceres City Council filed by a competing businessman. After he lost the appeal, gas station owner Sunny Ghai, owner of the Popeye’s and Union 76 station on the other side of Mitchell Road, hired the Sacramento law firm of Abbott & Kindermann to challenge the project in court.
Attorney Diane Kindermann fought the project claiming the city of inadequate environmental review outlined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). City planners said the claim was bogus since the property site underwent studies as part the previously approved Ceres Gateway Center and the Mitchell Ranch Shopping Center projects. They said the lawsuit – similar to the one that held up the Walmart Supercenter project for over 14 years – was merely an attempt to block a competitor from coming in across the street.
Maverik has been contemplating the Ceres location right off the Mitchell Road exit of Highway 99 for over eight years and concluded this is the ideal spot. Meyers said the Mitchell Road site is unique in that it is surrounded by roads on all sides and shouldered by the highway. He noted that Ceres Police and Modesto Fire officials had no objections or public safety concerns with Maverik building there.
“It’s kind of been surprising on this one,” Meyers told the council at last year’s appeal hearing. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a business competitor fight so hard against another competitor coming into the market. This property makes sense for it to be developed for regional commercial uses.”
At the time of its approval then Planning Director Lea Simvoulakis said Maverik is expected to generate approximately $629,000 annually in sales and use tax from the fuel sales, and around $41,000 in sales and use tax from the convenience store transactions. The purchase of construction material within the region will exceed $500,000, she estimated.
When Ghai disputed the city’s claims that Ceres would reap new annual taxes of over $670,000, insisting the new station would reduce sales and corresponding taxes from existing businesses.
The station is the first project proposed as part of the SamBella Plaza commercial subdivision map approved in May 2021. SamBella Plaza consists of 11.9 acres divided into six separate commercially zoned parcels and a storm drainage basin parcel at Mitchell and Rhode roads.
The Maverik will occupy an “island” of two parcels immediately east of Mitchell Road and between Rohde Road and Highway 99.
The project is expected to employ an equivalent of 15 full-time employees.
City officials including Ceres Police Chief Trenton Johnson have dismissed claims that the project would result in accidents and the crime and prostitution common to overnight truck lots. No overnight parking or showers will be offered such as traditional truck stops. Johnson did talk up the tax revenue that will be siphoned off of Highway 99 and tap into the wallets of truck drivers who use Mitchell Road as a designated trucking route.
The city believes the project won’t necessarily cause any additional traffic since Mitchell Road is already being used as a truck route from Highway 99 to southwest Modesto industries north of the Tuolumne River.
