Plans move ahead for Pine Lakes Parkway gas station

Published: Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 10:04 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 10:25 p.m.

PALM COAST While some residents are lamenting the idea of a new gas station and drive-thru restaurant in their neighborhood, the upcoming project keeps inching closer to inevitability as more paperwork gets submitted and signed.

Cindi Lane, a spokeswoman with the city of Palm Coast, confirmed this week that a site plan development order has been approved for a new convenience store at 295 Pine Lakes Parkway, where it intersects with Wynnfield Drive.

Additionally, a commercial permit worth more than $1 million was submitted Nov. 13 by M.E. Construction, an engineering firm out of West Melbourne, according to public records. Barbie Bembry, the citys permitting and zoning supervisor, stated in an email this week that comments were given to the applicant days later, but the city is still waiting for a response.

Some residents are angry that a 12-acre section of Pine Lakes, nestled between two neighborhoods, was zoned commercial even before Palm Coast officially became a city in late 1999. It was zoned that way by ITT, the developer that built much of the infrastructure that would later become Palm Coast.

The bottom line (is that) ITT made a huge mistake zoning it as it did and the city should have altered that and now needs to do something to ameliorate the blow this will have, said resident Michael H. Brown. Anyone who traverses Pine Lakes can see how grossly out of place and potentially devaluating it will be.

A couple of residents also voiced their displeasure about the project to the City Council during a meeting Tuesday.

Council members have said in the past they have no power to stop the owner, M & R United, from building a store at that location.

Lane said the upcoming Mobil store, which will be about 4,250 square feet, will include 12 pump stations. The drive-thru restaurant will take up about 1,200 square feet of that space. The city has not been told which fast food restaurant will be located there, Lane said.

That area of Pine Lakes is a popular place for walkers, runners and bicyclists because the citys trail system runs along that road.

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Plans move ahead for Pine Lakes Parkway gas station