The City Council voted June 10 to adopt Ordinance 56 (zoning case 24‑203‑C), a conditional rezoning for property at the northwest corner of Greenwood Road and Pines Road. The measure passed on second reading; council recorded the vote as passing with six affirmative votes.

The rezoning grew out of a multi-year redevelopment effort at the former Hillsdale Elementary School site. During public comment, multiple residents and local business employees urged the council to reject a proposed 7‑Eleven-style convenience store and said the area already has numerous gas stations and that adding another large corporate outlet would harm local independent businesses. Connie Walker, who said she works at a nearby gas station, told the council, “We do not need another gas station. Our community on Pines Road already has more than enough gas stations.” Melissa O’Brien, who said she would lose her job if a competitor opened, added, “If we have to close, I will be out of a job and can't provide for my daughter.”

City staff and the applicant’s representative, Michael Corbin (external affairs manager for the applicant), told the council the request had been revised after neighborhood participation meetings and that the rezoning was pursued as a conditional zoning application to allow site-specific conditions. Staff said the originally submitted site plan included truck parking for large commercial vehicles; the applicant agreed to remove parking for 18-wheelers from the approved site plan. Planning staff and council members emphasized that conditional zoning allows council and MPC to impose conditions intended to limit impacts on nearby residences.

Council members said the conditional zoning had community support after multiple neighborhood participation meetings and that the conditions — including removal of truck parking and design features intended to limit late-night disturbance — addressed several residents’ concerns. The council moved and seconded final passage (motion by the vice chair, second by Councilman Green) and recorded the ordinance as passing with six yes votes.

At the meeting, staff noted the site’s orientation and that normal fleet or site operations would observe business hours and that 24/7 activity would occur only during emergency storm restoration or other exceptional outages. The council asked staff to provide district-specific notifications and to continue working with neighborhood groups about project impacts.

The ordinance amends the zoning map to ICCD (Institutional Campus Conditional Zoning District) for the specified property and includes approved site-plan conditions recorded in the MPC file for case 24‑203‑C.