Columbus leaders worry about crime around gas stations. Could new development rules help?
Columbus leaders are worried that gas stations are increasingly becoming hot spots for crime and loitering, and they’re hoping a change to development rules would curtail the problem.
With a couple shootings at Columbus gas stations in recent years and concern about gambling, government officials want to prioritize safety with the new rules.
The Columbus Planning Advisory Commission approved changing a Unified Development Ordinance regarding convenience stores that sell gas at a Wednesday meeting. This change wouldn’t amend any existing requirements, but it would add restrictions for new gas stations.
The amendment would create these restrictions on new gas stations:
Any new gas station must be at least 2,000 feet away from currently licensed gas stations on the same side of the street
Gas stations must be only on high-capacity roads, like Veterans or Macon, and collector streets that connect to high-capacity roads
Lot sizes must be at least one acre unless they have a special exception
Gas stations must have at least six pumps
Columbus Councilor Toyia Tucker and former councilors Mimi Woodson and Jerry “Pops” Barnes asked city staff to look into adding more requirements for convenience stores with gas sales in 2022, planning director Will Johnson said in a council meeting last October.
“We were getting a lot more stores,” Tucker told the Ledger-Enquirer. “And they were more like lottery lounges. It wasn’t necessarily for food and gas sales. It was more for lottery sales.”
These stores don’t make any money off gas, Johnson told the Planning Advisory Commission.
“They make it off the lottery, beer, snacks and tobacco,” he said in the meeting. “And the proliferation has just gotten ridiculous. And it leads to loitering.”
Around the point where Floyd Road and Woodruff Farm Road meet, Johnson said, there are about four convenience stores selling gas. A third gas station will soon open at the intersection of Miller Road and Macon Road.
“If you look around, you can easily have three gas stations within 100 yards,” Tucker said.
Ten requests to open convenience stores with gas sales have been heard over the last three years, Johnson told the Ledger-Enquirer. Four were approved, and the other six were denied or withdrawn. The number of gas stations in Columbus wasn’t immediately available.
Gambling, shootings raise concern
Gambling is a concern at these gas stations. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants at nine Columbus gas stations for violating the state’s gambling laws.
Violent crime at gas stations was another reason to add more restrictions, Tucker said.
Council members initially brought up their concerns in 2022 after multiple incidents at a Chevron station on Farr Road, one which ended with a person being shot to death.
Another shooting at a Columbus gas station left nine juveniles injured earlier this year.
Some of the older gas stations do not have proper lighting or cameras to help deter crime, Tucker said.
The new restrictions, if approved, will only apply to new gas stations. Tucker plans plans to bring up other ordinance changes to the council, she said. But Tucker said she’s only one vote, and any changes will have to be approved by more members of the council.
This problem isn’t exclusive to Columbus, she said. Macon also was dealing with problems at the time concerns in Columbus were raised, and the other city implemented a temporary moratorium on new applications.
These restrictions are about keeping people safe, Tucker said.
“We definitely have to be concerned about the safety of the people who work in those locations and also the patrons,” she said.
