Members of the Pike Road Town Council passed an ordinance on Wednesday that pauses all new gas station construction for one year.
Pike Road Mayor Gordon Stone told 1819 News on Wednesday, “We’ve put a temporary pause or authorized a hold on convenience store construction in Pike Road until such a point that we can conduct a study to understand what the look, the feel, the spacing, kind of (what) the overall fit of that product in the town should be and what the desire of the community is for that product.”
“We’re not certainly opposed to having good business partners in Pike Road. We want those kind of partners across the board, good business partners, but we also understand that we are stewards of our community and we need to make sure that we’re communicating effectively to those business partners what that relationship expectation is and doing it in a way that is based on sound analysis and kind of a future vision. With that in mind, the council decided to adopt that ordinance this morning, and it’s in effect for a year, and they authorized me to go ahead and hire somebody to conduct that study and put together that strategy. We’re in the middle of a comprehensive planning process anyway, so it’s a good time to do that. Hopefully, this will be something that we’ll be able to keep everybody informed of as we go forward, so that all parties kind of grow together in this,” he added.
Stone said the town had already notified “two prospective partners” about the pause in convenience store construction.
“There are two prospective partners that have been in conversation with us. We’ve already communicated with them this decision, and there are others I’m sure that are out there that we don’t know about. We’re aware that we need to be as upfront about this and as thorough in this as we possibly can because it’s not our goal to stymie any kind of opportunity but it is our goal to make sure that the character and the long-term sustainability of value in Pike Road maintains its prominence because that’s what we’ve been about the whole time,” Stone said. “I think it’s based on really an overall understanding from our planning department that when you’re in the middle of a comprehensive plan process, you don’t want something to get in front of your plan and you not be able to then deliver what the plan says because the plan didn’t come to fruition maybe as quickly as it could have. By putting this temporary hold it just allows us to make sure that everything is in a proper order.”
He continued, “The goal is to get the study and give ample time for the study to be implemented.”
“I think it’s really important that we communicate that Pike Road is open for business. We just want to make sure that the businesses that come to Pike Road maintain the character and long-term values that Pike Road has committed itself to. It is our responsibility as a community to communicate to those partners what that looks like and how that should evolve and we will continue to have open dialogue with any and all who want to be a part of our Pike Road community, you know, what that looks like, what that feels like, and how that can happen,” Stone added.
Bart Fletcher, President of the Petroleum and Convenience Marketers of Alabama, told 1819 News on Wednesday he considered Stone a personal friend but said the pause on convenience store construction was “a little short-sighted.”
“It’s seen tremendous growth. I can’t imagine that there’s not somewhere in all of the area encompassed by Pike Road that there wouldn’t be a legitimate reason to at least consider a new retail convenience store to better serve the citizens out there. I’m not aware of any other municipality in Alabama that has ever put a specific ban on retail gasoline facilities/convenience stores. I would certainly be interested in what their thought process was behind that. It seems kind of strange when you have as much growth as is going on in Pike Road right now and as much retail as they’re trying to attract to their community because of the number of new rooftops, it seems to me to be a little short-sighted to completely eliminate a very good neighbor that’s providing products and services that your residents need on a day-to-day basis but I can’t speak for the town council. I have no earthly idea what would cause them to make a decision like that,” Fletcher said.
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