BOZEMAN — The intersection of Davis and Baxter Lane is a high-traffic that folks in town are worried is about to get even busier due to a gas station popping up.
When Jared Pettyjohn and his wife received a notice from the city that a Thriftway gas station was popping up across the street from them they were pretty upset.
“There’s no need for a gas station in a residential area,” said Pettyjohn. “There’s four of them within a two-mile radius from our house.”
The gas station will be built at the northeast corner of the intersection of Davis and Baxter lanes on about five acres of land, a view the Pettyjohns say won’t be easy on the eyes.
“I feel for our neighbors at the end of the street having cars idling non-stop and the fumes of gas,” said Pettyjohn.
And the Pettyjohns aren’t alone in their worries.
The application for the gas station received dozens of written public comments, mostly opposed to the Thriftway. Many cited the same concerns expressed by the Pettyjohns.
As a matter of fact, the PettyJohns' neighbor, Justin Armor, went as far as hiring a lawyer to somehow mitigate the gas station coming in.
“When we moved into the area, we looked into the zoning that was across the street,” said Armor. “We saw it as B-2 zoning.”
Meant for things like restaurants and retail.
“Things we’d look forward to in this neighborhood,” said Armor.
But Armor says he thinks this B-2 zoning was never meant to have a gas station.
“It sounds like what may have happened, is that this area has been included into the special improvement districts,” said Armor. “That then makes the city eligible to receive funding.”
However, I spoke with deputy mayor Terry Cunningham on the phone, and he said more funding was not the driving force when reviewing the application for a special use permit.
“The sole criteria that the community development director will be looking at is whether or not a gas station is an appropriate use for that parcel of land,” said Cunningham.
He says nothing else, whether it’s a special improvement district or TIF district is factored into their decision.
But even so, folks like Pettyjohn and Armor believe the gas station is unnecessary for the area.
“I feel like we weren’t given enough notice,” said Pettyjohn. “If they would’ve asked everyone around here before it got too far along I think we could’ve stopped it.”
