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Marble Falls denies permit for gas station near Gregg Ranch

The site plan for a denied gas station next to the Gregg Ranch subdivision on U.S. 281 in Marble Falls. The retail center pictured next door to the proposed station was not considered by Marble Falls councilors on June 4, 2024. Screen-captured image

The Marble Falls City Council on June 4 unanimously voted against a conditional use permit for a gas station to be built next to the Gregg Ranch subdivision

The Tuesday decision followed city staff and Planning and Zoning Commission recommendations to deny the proposed eight-pump fueling station with a 4,507 square-foot convenience store along U.S. 281. 

A roughly 9,000-square-foot retail center next door to the station was not part of the conditional use permit. 

Conditional use permits allow developers to build in areas not specifically zoned for a proposed project. 

Marble Falls Mayor Dave Rhodes said one of the main reasons the station’s permit was denied is because the applicant failed to disclose the project to Gregg Ranch homeowners.

“I’m into property rights, but there were some things that didn’t happen in the order that it should have,” he said. “If you own a home, disclosure is an important thing. People need to know what they’re buying. This wasn’t disclosed, and it should’ve been.”

The site’s prior zoning as neighborhood commercial, before becoming a planned development district, was another issue.Neighborhood commercial zoning does not allow construction of gas stations.

“For me, it was plain and simple,” Councilor Bryan Walker told DailyTrib.com. “That zoning would never have allowed a gas station to be there. Nobody wants to look over their back fence and see a gas station being put up.”

Rhodes explained that the applicant’s inclusion of gas pumps, as opposed to building a standalone convenience store, put the permit application before the City Council.

“(The permit) wouldn’t have even had to come before council or (Planning and Zoning) if it didn’t have gas or fuel,” he said. “When you add that, all the sudden, it requires a conditional use permit, mostly for health and safety reasons.”

He elaborated on what health and safety concerns the council looks at when considering conditional use permits.

“Gasoline is flammable, so there’s a lot of things involved to make sure that (safety issues) are being dealt with in order to issue a permit,” Rhodes said.

Several Gregg Ranch residents spoke against the station during the Tuesday council meeting as well as at prior Planning and Zoning Commission meetings.

“The folks in Gregg Ranch did a really great job at being respectful to the process,” Rhodes said. “I was really proud of them. They were noisy, so to speak, but they did a good job to put their voices together in an appropriate way.”

Councilors Richard Westerman and Lauren Haltom were absent from the June 4 meeting.

nathan@thepicayune.com

2 thoughts on “Marble Falls denies permit for gas station near Gregg Ranch

  1. I find it ironic that there are gas stations near other neighborhoods in marble falls but this one is a no can put it next to a neighborhood. Do the other gas stations not have flammable gas?

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