Nelmar Terrace neighborhood protests 7-Eleven

In a special edition of The St Augustine Report, published by former St Augustine Mayor George Gardner, Historic City News discovered that the focus was new found momentum for the controversial 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station envisioned for the intersection of May Street and San Marco Avenue in the North City neighborhood of Nelmar Terrace.

North City resident Sandy Lenney was pictured in the article, along with two dozen neighborhood residents in October protesting the 7-Eleven plans when first introduced.

Despite the presentation of a citizen petition containing nearly 700 names of concerned residents and motorists, the city commission denied the resident’s appeals to block the project — supported by several arguments; among them:

• Location doesn’t fit the 7-Eleven business model of open, easily accessible service
• Congestion on these streets rate them a “D”
• Zoning was designed in 1975 for corner stores and pedestrian-friendly businesses
• Entrance Corridor guidelines were put in place to maintain a low impact, pleasant entry into our historic city

The plans have been particularly upsetting to residents of the historic neighborhood; with its children’s park, a carousel, a historic 1800’s waterworks building, and the nearby Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Neighbors are concerned with traffic patterns that can send cars through the Nelmar Terrace neighborhood, commuters are concerned with already long queues along San Marco Avenue and May Street, and residents are concerned for kids at Davenport Park across San Marco and for students of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind up San Marco.

“There are lots of reasons to oppose this 7-Eleven,” Nelmar Terrace Neighborhood Association’s Skip Hutton said. “One is the public safety issue of a dangerously congested intersection becoming more congested and more dangerous, resulting in more accidents and more injuries. I wish our City was concerned about people’s safety and I wish 7-Eleven was too.”

The corner site, zoned for commercial use back in the 1970’s era of “Mom-and-Pop” stores, was once anchored by the Manatee Café. Several storefronts faced pedestrian friendly sidewalks and on-street parking along San Marco Avenue. Developer Wally Devlin proposed a similar development in the early 2000’s. Then the economy soured.

“7-Eleven stores are typically open 24 hours,” Association Vice President Matthew Shaffer added. “The noise, lighting, and increased traffic will certainly have a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhood.”

Current plans show right-turn-only onto May Street from the store’s parking lot, but no restriction on San Marco Avenue.

Residents have argued that patrons of the store will not turn left, if they are returning to town across a lane of opposing traffic on San Marco Avenue. Instead, they say commercial traffic will turn right, heading north on San Marco Avenue, to Nelmar; cutting through their otherwise quiet residential neighborhood to return downtown.

“Even worse, there are no plans to improve this already busy intersection to accommodate the increased traffic,” Shaffer said. “What a terrible first impression this gas station would make to visitors coming to our historic city from Vilano Beach or Ponte Vedra Beach.”

Florida Department of Transportation officials, responding to a letter of concern by the neighborhood association, wrote, “The Department has little control over the zoning and local development of private property – this is the responsibility of local government. We are responsible for ensuring that property owners adjacent to State roads are allowed reasonable and safe access.”