Abhilasha Jain
Gas Station Restrictions
A text change development case is currently awaiting review by the Raleigh City Council that could limit the future of the construction of gas stations within residential neighborhoods. According to the city of Raleigh’s public records, the text change recommendation, TC-2(B)-15, would limit the placement, size, hours and construction guidelines of any gas station that is built after the ordinance is passed.
According to Eric Braun, member of the Raleigh planning commission and chair of the text change subcommittee of the planning commission, the text change was a result of a zoning case that occurred at the intersection of Buffaloe Road and New Hope Church Road where neighborhood residents filed a petition against the building of a Sheetz gas station.
The current text change proposal is available on the city council website. According to the current ordinance, if passed by the city council, newly developed gas stations within residential districts will have their hours limited from 6 a.m.–11 p.m. and will have to be located at least 200 feet from residential use or zone.
“As it exists today, there are no restrictions on the neighborhood mixed use and the community mixed used zoning district as it relates to gas stations,” Braun said. “Essentially, this text change addresses the situation where someone proposes to locate a gas station or service station within the new neighborhood mixed use zoning district.”
According to Braun, this text change took four to five months of meetings with the Text Change Committee, people who represented the industries and concerned citizens to develop a draft text change.
Thomas Worth Jr., an attorney who represented small gas stations, said that the proposal is a compromise between some local convenience gas owners and nearby residential neighborhoods.
Gas stations will also have to be no more than one story tall for any convenience store, and the size cannot exceed a maximum of 1,000 to 1,200 feet and eight total gas pumps. Backlighting of fuel canopies will also be prohibited and vacuuming and compression devices will also have restrictions on placement. Car washes will only be allowed if it is a fully automatic car wash.
However, according to Braun, “This change will not be held against gas stations that are already developed in residential neighborhoods and do not meet these guidelines as long as the gas station does not make any significant changes to property.”
Tanya Rice, a resident of the city of Raleigh, agrees that gas stations should be held separate from residential neighborhoods.
“I couldn’t imagine living next to a gas station,” Rice said. “It would be very noisy, and I would think it could decrease property value if it was too distracting.”
Apartment areas such as the communities on Tryon Road would not have to worry about this ordinance.
“The residential district does not mean multi-family zoning district,” Braun said. “It does not apply to apartments, so you can still locate a convenience store gas station next to an apartment complex as long as it is not within 200 feet of a residential zone.”
The city council has yet to vote to adopt or abandon this case.