Troy City Hall was packed at the May 22 Troy Planning Commission Meeting with concerned residents voicing their displeasure with a proposed gas station. 

Cenergy Properties brought a rezoning request to the commission, requesting 3.20 acres of property at the intersection of Highway 87 and Spradley Drive. The request would rezone those 3.20 acres from Commercial Office Zoning to General Commercial Zoning, with a planned gas station/convenience store to be constructed. The commission was voting on whether or not to recommend that re-zoning request to the Troy City Council, which ultimately votes on whether to approve or deny these requests. 

Cenergy owner Anthony King spoke to the commission, saying that he planned to build a convention store similar to that of one he built near the country club in Andalusia. It would feature six gas pumps but King was adamant that big trucks would not be among his customers.

“This store is meant to be for passenger vehicles only,” King emphatically said. “The parking lot we laid out in Andalusia – the way the curb cuts and the drives are built – were specifically laid out by the engineer to be unfriendly to truck traffic. 

“There will be no high flow diesel pumps here, it will be hard even for delivery trucks to get in and out. No truck traffic will be encouraged. They wouldn’t even be able to get to the pumps if they tried.”

King’s assurances were no assurance to Troy residents, however. Perry Green, a resident of Spradley Drive for nearly four decades, took issue with the Statement of Intent for the rezoning request, which stated that it would provide for the development of professional office buildings designed to intermingle with other uses without a detrimental effect on adjacent properties and zoning districts.”

“I believe a change to the zoning district would have a detrimental effect on the adjacent properties, especially the residents there,” Green said. “The Highway 87 and Spradley Drive intersection is already an extremely busy intersection. The most recent traffic count I could find – from 2023 – was 13,400 vehicles a day passing through that intersection.”

There are a number of subdivisions on Spradley Drive and surrounding areas, including the Troy Country Club and Wildridge Subdivision. 

“As a parent – and as a child that was very venturous and grew up on a golf cart – I feel like having a gas station at this location would be a great temptation for the number of children riding golf carts in the community to try and make it to this gas station,” Hannah Clifford said. “I feel very strongly this will result in a death among our children.”

Property values were also a topic of concern for residents.

“I’ve already seen two houses in the last month or so up for sale on Spradley and I feel like a business such as this would severely negatively impact the property values and marketability if any of the families on Spradley chose to sell,” Jason Clifford said. “Who would want to buy a house right behind a gas station?”

Resident Elizabeth Stallworth compared the issues a new gas station would bring to other high traffic areas in the city.

“What I think about with a gas station – or any kind of business that will have multiple entrances and exists – is the situation over by Sonic that we have on George Wallace Drive,” she said. “It’s already really scary going across (Highway) 87 across Spradley or Oak Park. That’s what I think about, the absolute nightmare you see by Regions and Sonic over there. It could quite possibly be this same exact situation here. It would be extremely dangerous.”

Troy resident Ryan McCollough shared a message for the commission, and city council. 

“I just wanted to remind our committee here – and the city council – that your duty as a member of this committee is to listen to the concerns of, and make decisions in the best interest of, Troy citizens,” McCollough continued. “Not necessarily the best interest of business owners from outside of our community. I want you to remember when you put your heads together to make this decision, you should make the decision for the benefit and on behalf of the citizens of Troy.”

The commission unanimously voted to not recommend this re-zoning request to the Troy City Council. The next Troy City Council Meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Troy City Hall on May 27 with a public work session at 4 p.m.