P&Z commission denies request to build convenience store on Shurling Drive in Macon

The Macon-Bibb Planning & Zoning Commission has balked at Widner Associates’ plans for a 4,500-square-foot convenience store with fuel pumps and 3,000 square feet of available retail space at 2500 Shurling Drive.

The action came during a hearing Monday that also saw two key rulings on requests from a trucking business and office complex expansion project.

In January 2022, P&Z unanimously denied a fueling center with a 12,000-square-foot building at the same location when an adjacent convenience store was unoccupied.

At the time, commissioners raised concerns about contributing to blight by building a new store next to a vacant one.

The recent application notes there’s a new tenant in the adjacent store, but applicant Tony Widner said the property owner “feels like new construction and a new investment will contribute to the tax base and unemployment.”

P&Z Chair Jeane Easom noted there would be at least four other convenience stores within a half-mile if the project was approved.

“That just doesn’t seem reasonable to me,” Easom said. “I don’t want to discourage any commercial development that’s viable, but to me we already have four of them.”

Those nearby existing businesses have not been commercially viable since they were built, she said.

P&Z staff also raised concerns about the lack of pedestrian safety measures in the design and the risk of harmful chemical emissions from having too many gas stations that close together.

The commissioners denied the conditional use permit for the new store.

Widner’s request was approved for an additional Conditional Use permit for a new convenience store with retail space on a portion of about 33 acres at 3769 Fulton Mill Road.

The 3,500-square-foot store with fueling stations will be open daily from 6 a.m. until midnight near the corner of Eisenhower Parkway and Fulton Mill Road.

In other action:

▪ 557 Cherry St. – Churchills on Cherry Cigar Lounge will be allowed to have live entertainment on the first floor of the building. The bar and restaurant is opening a banquet room and event space in the old hookah lounge location. Churchills’ first application for live entertainment on the second floor was denied in 2019 after a neighboring loft apartment owner raised noise concerns.

▪ 500 Block of Moreland, 3870 Desoto Drive – P&Z approved Conditional Use to build 10, two-story townhomes in a cluster development on 1.1 acres. P&Z rezoned the property in October from single-family residential to Planned Development Residential to allow for the construction.

▪ 443 Sixth St. – New signs approved for Blake & Pendleton Compressed Air Systems, which recently relocated from Terminal Station.

▪ 685 College St. – Antebellum Arlington Place personal care home was granted permission to proceed with painting its walls, but the Design Review Board found it was inappropriate to paint the existing brick building in the InTown Historic District. The applicant apologized for starting the project before receiving the necessary approvals.

▪ 2437 Vineville Ave. – P&Z accepted the DRB’s recommendation that ADA improvements to the rear entrance were appropriate for this former residence that will be used as an office. Plans also call for adding brick steps to the patio and new garage door panels.

▪ 112 Broadway – New Riverside Storage sign approved to face Riverside Drive near the corner of the old Telegraph building.

▪ 158 Steven Drive – Veterinarian Ronald Amsterdam granted a Conditional Use permit to operate AVS Animal Hospital in the old Modern Woodmen of America office off Mercer University Drive. The hospital will be open between 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. every weekday but Thursday, and will be closed for lunch from 1-2 p.m.

Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Telegraph. She can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu.