The revived rezoning request by RaceTrac for a gas station and convenience store on Bells Ferry Road at Barrett Parkway has been delayed by the Cobb Planning Commission.
After a lengthy discussion the commission voted 5-0 Tuesday to hold the application for 30 days for environmental, traffic and other reasons.
RaceTrac is bringing back plans for a facility at the corner of Bells Ferry Road and Barrett Parkway that it withdrew late last year, before the Cobb Board of Commissioners could vote.
The planning board had recommended prohibiting gas station use, as well as alcohol, vaping and tobacco sales, car washes, automotive uses or any type of drive-through business.
On Tuesday, the board heard from citizens near the two-acre tract that was formerly the site of the McAfee House, a home dating to the 1840s and that has been relocated to Cherokee County.
They repeated concerns about traffic, especially due to the property’s location across from Bells Ferry Elementary School, and adjacent to a day care center, as well as worries over gas emissions from the fuel pumps.
The new site plan by RaceTrac, a Cobb-based company (you can read it here) is relatively unchanged from last year, with a 16-pump fuel station and convenience store that would be open 24/7.
The primary opposition came from the Bells Ferry Civic Association, which repeated environmental concerns about the release of gas vapors into the vicinity on an around-the-clock basis. More than 30 people turned out in opposition at Tuesday’s hearing.
The applicant’s attorney, Kevin Moore, said RaceTrac’s pumps and fuel tanks would be equipped with equipment to capture gas vapors from the pumps.
But Planning Commission member Fred Beloin pressed the issue, asking Moore and Cobb Zoning Division head John Peterson if there’s anything the county can do to require applicants to provide information about what Beloin called “a known environmental threat.”
Moore said there’s no county ordinance to that effect, and Peterson replied that county commissioners have latitude in incorporating such information.
“We’re acting without data, without information . . . to suggest it’s safe,” a frustrated Beloin said.
Other opponents expressed concerns about traffic related not just to school operations but the area in general.
Cobb Board of Education member David Chastain, whose granddaughter attends Bells Ferry Elementary was among them, noting a high number of similar businesses nearby to the proposed RaceTrac.
“How many more 24-hour convenience stores do we need in this particular area?” asked Chastain, who said he was speaking on behalf of the community and not the Cobb County School District.
“Denying this request is not going to harm a good corporate citizen.”
He suggested the property, owned by by Medford Family LP, could be used for medical and professional offices instead.
Moore has countered that a RaceTrac will have no adverse traffic impacts in a commercialized area that’s adjacent to a major retail center with a Publix and a Barnes and Noble and close to the Town Center area.
The Cobb Zoning Division has recommended approval of the application, concluding that a traffic study completed for the initial request “will be considered satisfied” for the renewed application.
The staff analysis recommends that RaceTrac make access on Barrett Parkway right-in, right-out only.
But Sara Micheletto, a newly appointed Planning Commission member who did not hear the RaceTrac case last fall, questioned Moore’s claim in the wake of reconstruction at Bells Ferry Elementary that has relocated some students to Chalker Elementary.
When full capacity returns in the fall of 2027, school-related traffic in the area will return.
The Planning Commission’s vote is contingent on additional staff research into possible traffic and environmental impacts.
Related stories:
- New Johnson Ferry-Shallowford subdivision getting underway
- East Cobb Walmart files plans for drone delivery station
- RaceTrac refiles Bells Ferry/Barrett Parkway rezoning plans
- Cobb approves Mt. Bethel Christian Academy expansion plans
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