Gas station plans at Second Avenue and Riverbend Drive are postponed
A zoning request for a gas station near the Etowah River was pulled off of Board of Adjustments’ agenda for Thursday’s meeting.
The city’s planning and zoning assistant director, Brice Wood, said the gas station proposal was tabled for further adjustments at the request of the project’s architect.
This is the second iteration of the plan to place the gas station at the corner of Second Avenue and Riverbend Drive. It came under criticism from nearby Oakdene neighborhood residents concerning the potential for ecological and zoning issues.
The plans would place the station at the former location of Huff Pharmacy and Carter’s Hardware. The main issue is that the station, and underground gasoline storage, would be within 100 feet of the river.
One resident wrote to the Rome News-tribune that a breach of the 100-foot river buffer should be denied due to the threat of water pollution. They added that the river is a vital source of water and recreation for locals and should be protected by the city.
Additionally, according to city ordinances, “no building shall be allowed within 100 feet of the Etowah, Oostanaula and Coosa Rivers, except on previously developed property.”
However, the applicant Arpit Patel filed a variance for a 75-foot reduction back on Dec. 3, 2021.
Since the gas station would be larger than a hardware store, it wasn’t able to qualify for the reduction, Wood said.
A couple of weeks after the variance was filed, it was withdrawn on Dec. 15 after Patel’s engineer said they misinterpreted the Unified Land and Development Code.