One of the ugliest blots along a Canton Road corridor that’s long been the subject of redevelopment efforts appears to be going away soon, but what will come in its place is uncertain.
The owner of an 0.87-acre parcel of land just north of the Canton Road Connector wants to convert a long-abandoned gas station into a kitchen and cabinet showroom, but after a Cobb Planning Commission meeting Tuesday, those plans might be in limbo.
Planning board member Judy Williams, who represents the Canton Road corridor, expressed frustration that the property owner hadn’t submitted detailed plans. Those include meeting design guidelines as part of the Canton Road Corridor Plan.
PetroPlex Joint Venture, the property owner, has not forwarded any renderings, and was to have included stipulations to remove the canopy and front signage from the old gas station.
PetroPlex had requested to rezone the land currently designated for general commercial (GC) to neighborhood retail commercial, or NRC (agenda item packet), since it had been vacant for so long.
Saying she “had high hopes” for the redevelopment of the property, Williams made a motion instead to recommend approval of a low-rise office category (LRO), and her motion passed 5-0.
The planning board’s vote is advisory. The Cobb Board of Commissioners will make a final decision on Dec. 19, but the case illustrates the challenges of cleaning up blighted properties along Canton Road.
The property at 2120 Canton Road has been vacant since 2003. Civic and business groups in the area didn’t like the rezoning request because of the lack of details.
While the former gas station has been “a true eyesore” in the community for years, Carol Brown of the Canton Road Neighbors civic association was troubled that no stipulation letters specified the canopy removal.
Her group drafted a letter including that request and asked for a prohibition against southbound turns onto Canton Road, limiting traffic to “a right in, right out” pattern.
Eric Hodge of PetroPlex said he has “spent a lot of money abating a nuisance,” telling the planning board he found out about the canopy removal request only on Tuesday. Fuel tanks from the old gas station were removed earlier this year, as the company acquired the land. Plans call for renovating and expanding the existing building for the showroom, which would be open from 8-5 Monday-Friday and employ 4-6 people.
He said keeping the canopy “is an integral part of the business,” and that he has been “trying to take a bad property and make it nice.”
Williams said she didn’t understand how leaving the canopy standing would have that effect. In her motion, she included language that it be removed, and that new signage fitting the design guidelines also be part of the site plan.
