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Decision clears way for gas station, store

Former City Commissioner Fred Thomas wants to build a 3,200-square-foot gas station and convenience store downtown at Court Street and East Avenue S.

By MEGAN SCOTT
Published March 23, 2005

CLEARWATER - Because of a judge's order, Community Development Board members believed they had no choice but to approve a downtown gas station and convenience store Tuesday.

Their decision cleared the way for former City Commissioner Fred Thomas to construct the 3,200-square-foot gas station and convenience store at Court Street and East Avenue S to serve cars heading to Clearwater Beach.

Thomas had been fighting to get his plans approved since June 2003.

"You have to feel good when you win," he said. "I was denied improperly. It was more a political denial than a denial of fact."

Thomas is the founder of the Pinch-A-Penny pool supply chain.

Both the city Planning Department and the Community Development Board ruled against the proposal. Thomas appealed to a hearing officer, who upheld their decision. He then took his case to circuit court.

Earlier this year, a Pinellas judge tossed aside the board's decision and said the planning board used the wrong criteria to make its decision.

Circuit Judge David Demers said in his nine-page ruling that the planning staff relied on changes to the downtown plan that were merely proposed but had not yet been enacted.

"The circuit judge ordered them to do this today," said Ed Armstrong, the Clearwater attorney representing Thomas. "We had a court order."

Planning director Cyndi Tarapani said the city was not planning to challenge the judge's ruling.

She said her staff opposed the gas station because it was inconsistent with the city's downtown plans.

"It's a gas station that caters to cars, not people," she said on Tuesday. "We're trying to encourage people to walk."

Thomas said a gas station and a convenience store are the best uses for the property, which had been home to his Clearwater Train Station Restaurant. When the Memorial Causeway bridge opens Sept. 1, beachgoers will be diverted along Court Street past his station site at East Avenue S.

He gave a scenario:

Someone from out of town is driving to Clearwater Beach. He gets to Clearwater High School, unsure whether he has enough gas to make it all the way to the beach.

"You keep thinking, there's got to be a station,"' Thomas said. "You get to the bridge, you're on empty. Then you are hoping to get all the way to beach."

If everything goes as planned, Thomas said, his station could be operational within a year. He is in negotiations with gas station operators to see who wants to lease the property from him.

[Last modified March 23, 2005, 00:55:18]