Advisory board approves zone change and use permits for Pecos Road gas station despite concerns about throat depth, sidewalks and homelessness

Platinum Management Group presented a request to reclassify 0.18 acres to an industrial park zone and to permit a gas station with design review and multiple waivers on a 0.55-acre site at the southeast corner of Pecos Road and Gowen Road in Sunrise Manor. The applicant representative described an existing partially constructed convenience store on the parcel and proposed demolition of the unfinished structure to construct a gas station and retail building.

The applicant noted surrounding long-range land-use plans indicate business and employment uses, and invoked airport overlay/loudness conditions as part of land-use context. The project proposes landscaping, attached sidewalks and modified driveway and trash-enclosure standards; public works had denied some waivers (throat depth, driveway design and trash enclosure) in staff review but listed conditions that could allow approval. The applicant said they selected attached sidewalks and landscaping to reduce heat-island effects and had tried to locate the building as far from the intersection as possible.

Public comment raised concerns that landscaping strips can become sleeping and loitering areas for people experiencing homelessness; a nearby resident, Al Rojas, asked whether the applicant would use trespass and no-loitering enforcement and how the design would prevent encampments. Board members voiced strong concerns about reduced throat depths (applicant requested large percentage reductions from county minimums) and insisted on pedestrian safety standards; one board member said the county has recently emphasized detached sidewalks for pedestrian safety, while another supported redevelopment of a partially built blighted site and noted benefits from landscaping and a finished business. The board discussed that several planning waivers were denied but could be approved with conditions.

The advisory board voted to approve the zone change (item 9). For the combined item including the use permit, design review and waivers (item 10), the board voted to follow staff recommendations: approving waivers 1through 3 and denying 4 through 6 per staff report, while listing preliminary conditions for approval if the board were to grant them. Ultimately the motion adopted staff-recommended approvals and conditions and forwarded the record to planning staff for routing to the planning commission and Board of County Commissioners. The vote was accompanied by strong member comments on the need to address throat-depth safety, pedestrian sidewalks and the potential for loitering in landscaped areas.