Planning and Zoning Board Approves new RaceTrac

Monday night Smyrna’s Planning and Zoning board approved rezoning measures that would allow RaceTrac’s flagship convenience store to be built on Spring Road by a 5-1 vote; Larry Jones cast the only dissenting vote.

The decision will now go before the mayor and city council at next week’s meeting, July 18.

At Monday’s meeting, RaceTrac representatives requested that land lot 810 be rezoned from general commercial to general commercial-conditional. Meredith McElveen, RaceTrac’s real estate representative, explained what this means in a statement she made to Smyrna-Vinings Patch

“We are proposing to rezone the property,” she said. “It’s already general commercial. We’re rezoning it to general commercial conditional. Instead of going through the variance process, we decided to do a site plan-specific zoning, which would allow us to work more closely with city staff and Councilwoman (Melleny) Pritchett to have just site plan-specific zoning. That means that this zoning is only affecting this site.”

Rusty Martin, a representative from Smyrna’s community development department, elaborated the point in his presentation to zoning and planning board members.

“The use that’s proposed for this property is currently permitted under the zoning district, which means the gas station is a permissible use under the GC zoning classification,” he said. “There are numerous variances that the applicant has requested. We thought it would be more feasible to consolidate all those variance requests into a site-plan specific zoning designation and come through under one action, which would be a rezoning request.”

The proposed store will be 5,928 square feet, not 6,500 square feet as originally planned. The store will have two canopies with six pump islands under one canopy and three pump islands under the other.

The store will employee 18 to 20 people and is a $5 million capital investment on behalf of RaceTrac. The brick used to build the convenience store will match the color and texture of the brick at the neighboring fire station.

RaceTrac officials projected the store will be completed and open by December 31, 2011.

Of the 10 or so citizens who spoke during the public input portion of the meeting, about two thirds of them opposed the store.

Lori Pavlick lives on Bell Drive and her property faces the site of the proposed convenience store, which she called a “monstrosity.” In addition to calling it an eyesore, she cited the noise disturbances it will create for her neighborhood. In general she feared it would affect her quality of life.

“I’m also concerned because I’m really tired of feeling like the government of Smyrna is more interested in revenue than it’s residents,” she said. “And that’s exactly how it feels sitting over there on Bell Drive.”

Other citizens had concerns about the city’s motivations. Smyrna Mayoral candidate Donna Short-Woodham asked if RaceTrac had been offered any tax incentives to build its flagship store in Smyrna. She was assured by both city and RaceTrac officials that no such incentives had been offered or requested.

Parks Huff, RaceTrac’s legal representative at the meeting, claimed that the convenience store will create sales tax revenue for Smyrna. He cited the Oakdale Road store that was built in October 2010 as an example.

“From October of last year till May it has had $60,000 in sales tax revenue,” he said. “That’s interior sales tax. That’s not gas sales tax. That’s another $100,000.”

Jennifer Canaris explained that she opposes the store because she is not impressed with how RaceTrac has maintained its other stores in Smyrna.

“They have a store off of South Cobb Drive, but if you look at it is terrible,” she said. “You go inside it’s dirty. So you’ll keep this one clean, but not that one? All RaceTrac’s I’ve ever been in have not been up-kept.”

Huff countered that the South Cobb Drive RaceTrac is an older store. He also added that RaceTrac is looking to acquire additional right of way to redevelop that store.

Another citizen opposed to the convenience store implied that the poor condition of some RaceTrac gas stations is because the company is rumored to build stores and then sell them to third parties.

“From what I understand RaceTrac is going to build a humongous station and suck out everybody out of business,” Michael Chin said. “They also have the reputation once they build a nice station they sell to somebody else.”

Huff explained that RaceTrac stores are corporate-owned and corporate-run, but their RaceWay brand is managed differently. He also reiterated RaceTrac’s commitment to Smyrna. Operating nearly 600 retail gasoline convenience stores in a dozen states, RaceTrac Petroleum, Inc., is Georgia’s third-largest private company.

“They’ve been located in the Cumberland area since 1976,” he said. “They moved their headquarters their five years ago. It’s a long-term lease. We don’t own the property, but it’s a very long-term lease. They are heavily invested in the Atlanta area.”

Some speakers expressed concern that a convenience store opened 24 hours a day would bring crime to the area. One citizen cited the South Cobb Drive store that was robbed several months ago. Huff disagreed with the assertion that the proposed store will lead to increased incidence of crime.

“In terms of hours of operation, actually the reason why they’re 24 is that provides security,” he said. “You don’t have anybody hanging out an open convenience store. Closed convenience stores where the lights are down is where you have problems. That is actually the opposite affect. We will actually be security for those buildings around us because the police will be coming to get drinks in the middle of the night and things like that.”

But not everyone opposed the convenience store. Elise Rape is a long-time resident of Smyrna. She explained that Spring Road has changed over the years and a RaceTrac will be a welcome addition.

“I’ve lived here about 40 years,” she said. “I’ve seen filling stations open and close and most of them are closed now. There are not very many of them left. I’ve seen businesses closed and I’m tired of looking at that. We need businesses here. I wish RaceTrac the best of luck.

“Spring Road is not a residential street anymore. It’s mixed and I have no objection to the filling station.”