Neighbors win battle to stop gas station on Garcon Point Rd. It could end of hurting them.

With at least 80 people gathered to protest construction of a fourth gas station on overtaxed Garcon Point Road, the Santa Rosa County Commission decided Thursday to forego more discussion and deny a rezoning request made on behalf of the Quick Trip company.

Those who came out against the rezoning, from rural residential to highway commercial, included residents of the historic Bagdad community, who have seen a huge uptick in 18-wheeler traffic in recent years, as well as residents of the Ski Watch Estates, Windsor Villas and Sundial neighborhoods. Those subdivisions hold about 300 homes, according to Ski Watch resident Scott White.

Denial of the project had been recommended by the county's Zoning Board, but by the slimmest of margins in a 4-4 vote.

Commissioner Kerry Smith, who represents District 1 and the Garcon Point Road area, said he has traveled the road near the Intersection with Interstate 10, where the Quick Trip would be, enough to know that traffic is already "a nightmare."

"We need fueling, but I'm not in agreement we need fueling where we have three other opportunities at this very exit," he said.

Smith said he'd prefer to see something other than a service station catering to interstate truck traffic at the location where the rezoning was being sought.

"When you're adding extra truck traffic, it's a rough ride," he said. "We have three there, this would make four, and the unfortunate thing is we don't have the capacity on that road to handle it."

After some board discussion, Smith told those in attendance that he anticipated the request for the rezoning would be denied without a similar airing of complaints against the rezoning that had been heard by the Zoning Board. Still a couple of residents of the area wanted an opportunity to air their grievances with overall development along Garcon Point Road.

"Why would somebody want to increase our traffic on that beat up two-lane road called Garcon Point?" asked Randy Williams, noting that one exit down at four-lane State Road 87 there existed plenty of opportunities for commercial development.

Many who spoke at the Zoning Board hearing had drawn similarities between the proposed Quick Trip and a Love's Truck Stop that opened on Garcon Point Road in 2021. Williams said the truck stop had brought not only large vehicle traffic, but crime to the area.

"You think it's a bunch of good old guys stopping in their trucks to get gas, but it's not," he said. "It's homeless, it's travelers bumming a ride from a trucker, and while he's there he sees a nice neighborhood across the street."

He cited increased thefts and suspicious activity in the area of Sundial subdivision since the Loves had began operation.

"It's not about a truck stop. It's about security and doing the right thing," he said.

As she had at the earlier Zoning Board meeting, Angie Jones, representing Quick Trip, put commissioners on notice that the company also holds contract rights to another parcel just east and south of the one for which the rezoning was being sought. That parcel is already zoned for highway commercial development, she said.

She warned that if the requested rezoning were denied, Quick Trip could conceivably locate "650 feet closer to Ski Watch."

White, who attended the meeting Thursday and estimated the attendance of Garcon Point Road-area residents at "between 80 and 100," said he was grateful commissioners had listened to the community and that he hopes the cries for support will bring some attention to the need for infrastructure improvements along Garcon Point Road.

"I hope what comes of this is that it sheds light on the need for road improvements down here," he said.

Another controversial zoning issue that was pulled from the commission rezoning hearing ahead of Thursday's meeting was a request from Chris Brigham and Tow Heros LLC for rezoning that would allow him to locate an RV Park on Persimmon Hollow Road.

Brigham pulled his request after a Zoning Board hearing at which members of the Rich, Allen and Smith families relayed to him and board members the historic nature of the Persimmon Hollow neighborhood, which had been home to family members since 1910.

Brigham had said at the Zoning Board meeting he had heard enough from the family to reconsider his plans.

"I appreciate the heart and soul they have and the environment and the community," he said. "I can see how much they care about this close community, their tight-knit group, their children, everything in that aspect," he said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Quick Trip rezoning on Garcon Point Road denied by Santa Rosa County