After nearly four hours, the Downtown Investment Authority board of directors on Thursday denied the appeal of the approval of the site design for Gate Petroleum Co’s. convenience store and gas station in Brooklyn.
The authority is the appellate body for protest of approvals granted by the Downtown Development Review Board.
In favor of denying the appeal were Craig Gibbs, Jack Meeks, Ron Moody, Kay Harper Williams and board Chair Jim Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record.
Oliver Barakat and Brenna Durden supported the appeal.
The action was brought by Riverside resident Kay Ehas, who disagreed with the review board’s decision to grant deviations to the city’s urban core design standards.
She particularly objected to the store being built away from the street, which she described as “Gate applying a typical suburban design” to the site at Forest and Park streets near the Interstate 10-Interstate 95 interchange.
“Downtown rules need to be applied consistently,” she said.
The review board considered conceptual approval of the design March 10, but deferred action pending a workshop, after “a lot of debate” over the plan, said board member Roland Udenze.
Conceptual approval was granted at a March 24 workshop, after more than 20 alternative designs were created, discussed and rejected, he said.
The board supported bringing the store closer to Park Street, but how people and vehicles would move around the site was the “Achilles’ heel” of the project, said Udenze.
Positioning the store away from the street was to allow safe usage by gasoline customers and store customers and for delivery of gasoline and merchandise.
In the final analysis, the main issue was safety.
“I’m all for aesthetics, but if someone died on the property, I couldn’t sleep at night,” Udenze said.
Final approval was granted April 10. Ehas filed the appeal shortly afterward.
She said Downtown design standards require buildings to be constructed along the property line, unless the setback space is for open space, such as a plaza or courtyard.
Gate’s design places the store away from the street to accommodate gas pumps under a canopy.
Ehas said including an entrance on Forest Street would allow the front of the store to be placed along the sidewalk, which would improve pedestrian access as well as follow the design standards.
She brought landscape architect Fred Pope to the DIA hearing, who presented a layout that included an entrance along Forest Street.
Attorney Steve Diebenow, representing Gate, objected to the design being introduced, since it was not included in the documents Ehas provided before the hearing.
Bailey allowed the design to be introduced after Assistant General Counsel Jason Teal advised it was “illustrative” and demonstrated there are other options.
One of Diebenow’s witnesses, urban planner Brad Wester, said the Florida Department of Transportation would not allow an entrance along Forest Street because state administrative code prohibits such access within 440 feet of a federal highway. The Gate site is 320 feet from the I-10/I-95 interchange.
Ehas also presented designs used by other convenience store/gas stations that would meet the design standards.
“Other companies have built urban designs when required by local government to do so,” she said.
Diebenow said Gate went through due process and was granted by the review board relief from the build-to and setback lines.
Nine members of the public also spoke at the hearing, all in favor of the appeal.
When the board began its deliberations, Moody said Gate has a lot of experience designing convenience stores and gas stations and “property owners are entitled to the best and most profitable use (of their property).”
While no studies were presented to support Gate’s claims of safety concerns, Gibbs said the company is “a good neighbor with extensive experience with regard to design and safety.”
Bailey added the review board spent a lot of time evaluating the original design and alternatives before determining the only acceptable choice was the one approved.
Barakat said he is not interested in being a “barrier to development,” but he spent many hours “agonizing over the details” of the Downtown development plan adopted by DIA. Having the store built away from the street does not meet the requirements, he said.
Durden also cited the nonconformity to design standards, particularly Gate’s position that the gas pump area constitutes public open space, such as a plaza or courtyard.
“That defies common sense,” she said.
With the denial, Ehas has the option to take the matter to City Council, which would have final authority.
“I probably would do no better with City Council,” she said after the hearing.
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