A majority of the Fayetteville City Council members sided with developers in approving a rezoning request late Monday night for a 7-Eleven in the College Lakes neighborhood.
The council voted 7-3 to approve the rezoning, with Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen and Council Member Mario Benavente voting in opposition. All three are running for mayor in the upcoming election. The property is located in Jensen’s district.
The 2.1-acre parcel slotted for development is situated on one corner of the intersection of McArthur Road and Stacy Weaver Drive, and directly abuts single-family homes in the College Lakes subdivision. There is already a single-family home on the lot that has been used as an office space for several years, according to city planning staff. On the other corners of the intersection are a vacant lot (directly across the street), the North Regional Public Library, and another gas station, a Circle K. The city’s planning staff and Zoning Commission had recommended approval of the rezoning.
Approval of the rezoning — from single-family residential to limited commercial — concluded a five-month saga in which College Lakes residents, with support from various community organizations, had fought intensely against the development. At a public hearing and discussion lasting over an hour during Monday’s city council meeting, residents held up signs that read “Community says NO” with a 7-Eleven icon crossed out. The six residents who spoke reiterated the neighborhood’s concerns: The 7-Eleven would cause increased traffic at an already busy intersection, it was incongruent with the character of the area and future land use plan, and it would harm the environment and the health and safety of residents.
Council Member Brenda McNair left in the middle of the meeting before the rezoning. She did not tell her colleagues where she was going and did not recuse herself, which meant her vote automatically counted as a yes in any motion. McNair told CityView on Tuesday she had left the meeting because she was feeling sick.
“I sat there as long as I could,” McNair said.
Before the rezoning was discussed, Benavente had made a motion to recuse McNair so as to avoid the automatic vote, but the motion failed for lack of a second.
Arguments for and against
The city’s Zoning Commission initially voted 3-2 against recommending approval of the rezoning request when it came before them on April 8. The board had argued rezoning the property from single-family residential to limited commercial was incongruent with the city’s future land use plan, according to meeting minutes. The developers appealed the decision, they added some development conditions based on residents’ concerns, and then resubmitted the request as a conditional zoning, per the city council’s direction following the public hearing on the appeal. The Zoning Commission then reversed course, voting 3-1 to recommend its approval on July 8. The conditions included an 8-foot wooden fence and an additional 20-foot tree buffer, a 4-foot chain link fence around a dry detention pond and shielded site lighting.
Fayetteville lawyer Jonathan Charleston represented the property owner and developer. Charleston has represented developers, and local government officials, in a number of contentious cases. For example, he is representing Colvin and his business partner in their controversial endeavor to build an apartment complex on Cedar Creek Road. He defended Council Member D.J. Haire in an ethics complaint case against him last year. Most recently, he represented the owners of the dilapidated Coliseum Inn on Gillespie Street, which a Cumberland County judge ordered be demolished last week.
Charleston, like the proponents, reiterated arguments he had made for approval: that the 7-Eleven would provide economic benefits, it would not cause harmful traffic and it aligns with the city’s future land use plan. He also argued the conditions in place sufficiently addressed residents’ concerns, and that the home on the property had already been used for commercial purposes for many years.
“Convenience stores like 7-Eleven are evolving beyond just fuel stops,” Charleston said. “The fuel just attracts folks to the stores. Increasingly, these stores are becoming destinations for healthy food options — 7-Eleven is that type of product.”
Residents who spoke on Monday said these conditions did not address their fundamental concerns, especially those pertaining to the environment. One speaker, Isaac Fields, read a statement from the local environmental advocacy group Sustainable Sandhills, opposing the development.
“The addition of fueling stations in College Lakes would create significant threats to air, soil and water quality,” Fields read. “Groundwater pollution is especially concerning because our community already faces water contamination due to PFAS.”
Another speaker, Ben Hultquist of Strong Towns Fayetteville, said approving a new gas station contradicts the urgent need to address climate change, both on a local and global level. He said more gas stations will increase the city’s fossil fuel dependency and make Fayetteville even more car dependent.
“You can point fingers at the federal politicians that approve more drilling and more pipelines, and you would be justified in doing so,” Hultquist said. “But you are not blameless. While the federal policies increase the supply of fossil fuels, cities like Fayetteville continue to increase the demand … So in 25 years, when we’re supposed to be at net-zero emissions, this gas station will be a vacant eyesore and a health risk. That is the best-case scenario. The worst, it will still be a functioning gas station, which means we have failed our children, our grandchildren, and on and on.”
Charleston argued federal and state regulations were sufficient to ensure air and water quality would not be adversely affected by the fuel station.
“Now, there’s a lot of discussion about [harmful air] vapors, and I think those comments are appropriate for consideration,” Charleston said. “But quite frankly, the data shows that the federal government regulates gasoline stations and the kinds of tanks and piping and infrastructure that you have to have in place in order to have this kind of situation in these days.”
Council members weigh in
Some council members who voted for the rezoning explained their support, including Council Members Deno Hondros and Lynne Greene.
“I understand all the concerns that have been spoken — I can’t say that I don’t feel your passion, because I do. I hear it, I see it,” Greene said. “But did the developer follow the process? He did. Was it recommended by staff? It was. Did it go before the Zoning Commission? It did, twice. Did it meet the 2030 land use plan? It did. Did it involve a hearing where the developer was asked for certain conditions? Yes. Did he agree to those ultimate conditions? Yes, far more than some of the developers would have done that could possibly go in that spot. To me, it’s been through the process thoroughly and here we are.”
Hondros had a similar perspective, noting that the developer had volunteered the conditions on the property and the proposed development aligned with the city’s future land use plan, with the property’s future use designated as neighborhood mixed-use development, allowing for a blend of residential and commercial uses.
Colvin, on the other hand, said he couldn’t support the development because a traffic impact analysis — a study completed by engineers to assess future traffic impacts of a proposed development — had not been conducted for the 7-Eleven, and the N.C. Department of Transportation traffic data for the area was three years old.
Before the vote in favor of rezoning the property, Benavente had made a motion to deny it, which failed 6-4, with the council split along the same lines as the other vote (McNair’s vote was automatically a yes).
“The minor revisions proposed by the applicant do not cure the inconsistency with the comprehensive plan nor the negative community impact stated by the people,” Benavente said in his motion.
With the rezoning approved, the developers can now finalize the site plan and submit it to the Technical Review Committee for final approval. Once the plan is approved, they can begin the construction process by obtaining the necessary building permits.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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