Lovejoy is under fire for clearing the way for a developer to put a proposed gas station in a residential area near Lovejoy High School.
More than 50 residents who live near the site in unincorporated Clayton County protested at a Lovejoy City Council work session on Monday saying a gas station would bring crime and further lower property values in a community already beset with declining home values and foreclosures.
The council recently annexed and rezoned three acres at Panhandle and McDonough roads after a Zebulon developer made the request. For years, residents had successfully thwarted county efforts to turn the parcel into commercial property and now they say they feel they’ve been broadsided. Residents say they never saw the rezoning signs that city officials say were posted. Instead, residents say they learned about the proposed gas station a few weeks ago after a sign was posted on the site saying “Panhandle Shell. Coming Soon.”
“You put a gas station there and you’re going to destroy our community value,” Dale Millican, who lives in a subdivision near the site, told the council. “Everyone of you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Mayor Joe Murphy said in an interview after the meeting that the developer’s decision to post the sign was “a premature move without going through the proper procedures.” The sign was removed last weekend.
Lovejoy officials annexed the parcel of land but not the subdivisions around it. Thus, residents in the area have no real say-so regarding any plans for that site but city officials spent two and half hours Monday night hearing from angry residents. Once a municipality annexes a piece of land, the county has no jurisdiction over it anymore.
In addition to selling gas, residents fear the station will sell beer and cigarettes that will end up in the hands of students from nearby Lovejoy High School and Lovejoy Middle School. If built, the gas station would be surrounded by a church, day care center and several schools. By law, a business selling alcohol must be 100 yards from a church and 200 yards from an educational facility.
“I feel this is a move that’s underhanded,” said Sunzi Thomas, an 11-year resident who lives near the site.
Resident Betty Huger was more direct: “We are asking you not to put that gas station at the corner of Panhandle and McDonough.”
And residents contend there are already more than half a dozen gas stations in a roughly 2-mile radius of the proposed spot.
Lovejoy officials told the crowd no plans of any kind have been submitted to the city yet and they insist they had no idea a gas station was planned for the site. They told the crowd they would notify residents via Lovejoy’s website once plans are submitted by the developer.
Lovejoy officials unanimously approved to annex the property in April, a month after an application was submitted by Steve Reeves of SJ Reeves & Associates, a land surveying and subdivision design firm in Zebulon. City officials approved the plan as a way to grow the city and collect money from sales tax and business license. Last year, Lovejoy annexed the day care center that sits across from the contested site.
Reeves has yet to submit architectural and landscape design plans requested by the council. Attempts to reach Reeves were unsuccessful.
Murphy said the city has a “legal obligation to accept the plans for the project” if it meets standards. Yet the city could impose stipulations to make sure the business complies with and conforms to the surrounding community needs.
“Please know, we are not trying to hide anything,” councilwoman Rebekah Holland Wright said.
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