Planning board denies rezoning for proposed Dollar General on Blue Angel Parkway

The Escambia County Planning Board voted 4–1 on Jan. 7, 2025, to deny a rezoning request (case Z2025-01) for about 6.6 acres on North Blue Angel Parkway that the applicant said would host a 2.5-acre Dollar General Market and leave the rear acreage as green space.

The denial follows staff findings that the proposed HDMU zoning (which allows higher density residential and neighborhood retail) did not meet the county’s five rezoning criteria in the Escambia County Land Development Code, particularly compatibility with surrounding low-density residential uses and conformity with the comprehensive plan.

Applicant and developer presentations, staff analysis, public testimony and board deliberations centered on compatibility, access and drainage. The applicant’s representative, certified land-use planner Alara Mills Gutter, told the board the company had initially sought commercial zoning but revised the application to HDMU at staff’s request and planned to develop only the 2.5 acres fronting Blue Angel Parkway while preserving roughly 4 acres behind the site as green buffer. Developer Josh Helfstetler,…