At the southwest corner of Wolf Store Road and Butterfield Stage Road in Temecula, California, Ralphs Fuel Center #686 brings a new retail fueling facility to a vacant highway-commercial lot within the Vail Ranch Specific Plan. Developed by Heslin Holdings, the approximately 1.08-acre fuel center serves as an offsite extension of the Ralphs grocery store just to the northwest, with a 5,146-square-foot canopy over the fuel pumps and a 233-square-foot prefabricated kiosk.

Our team served as applicant, architect, and civil engineer, guiding the project through the Development Plan application across three submittals in 2021 and two later Minor Modification applications as the program evolved. In 2022, the plan was reworked with a Final Map that split the property into two parcels, one for the fuel center and one for a proposed retail building, and replaced a shared-access arrangement with a layout in which each lot is self-sufficient for parking and access. In 2024, a further modification refined the fuel facility site plan with an updated fuel tank location and a temporary trail connection between the two parcels.

The site design responds directly to the lot's constraints. Because the narrow frontage on Butterfield Stage Road made a driveway there infeasible, a single 45-foot driveway on Wolf Store Road brings traffic straight to the fuel pumps, creating a convenient point of access. Colors and materials were selected in muted earth tones to complement neighboring commercial development, and the landscape plan meets the required 20 percent coverage while using the south bicycle trail easement to buffer the fuel facility and parking from the bicycle trail along the south side of the site, as the Vail Ranch Specific Plan prescribes. The site provides double the minimum required parking for the fuel facility.