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This petition represents the citizens of Floyd County and the City of Rome in support of the recent amendments of Articles 3 and 4 of the County’s and City’s Unified Land Development Code, which places restrictions on the development and operation of convenience stores and convenience gas stations.

We are in support of the amendments for multiple reasons:

• First, we already have more than enough convenience stores and gas stations in our City and County. Based on October 2025 City data, there were 43 existing and 5 proposed gas stations in the City, and an additional 50 existing with 9 proposed in the County at that time. Those 93 already-existing and 14 potential stores equate to one gas station for every 948 people, while the national average is one gas station for every 2,000 to 2,225 people. This means we are already double (or even over double) the national average for gas stations in our City and County!
  
  
• Second, we want to make sure our communities remain safe. While convenience stores and gas stations are an important part of our lives, they are also legally permitted to sell items that can be harmful to certain members of our communities. In addition, these stores attract a certain level of patronage and even loitering late into the night. Because of this, we do not want or need convenience stores and gas stations near certain places in our community. We do not want or need them near our schools and daycare centers. We do not want or need them near our places of worship. We do not want or need them near places where our friends and family are in recovery. We do not want or need them too close to our homes. By requiring a 600-foot buffer between these public spaces and new convenience stores/gas stations, and a 300-foot buffer for single-family homes, these amendments help protect some of the most vulnerable in our communities.
  
  
• Third, we want to make sure our communities remain beautiful. Convenience stores and gas stations, despite their usefulness, can generate a higher potential for environmental damage than other types of small businesses – from the relatively small threats of littering and small customer gas or oil spills to the more catastrophic and dangerous threats of major gas/oil spills and fires. By preventing convenience store and gas station locations too close to our natural areas entrances and to our waterways, this ordinance helps protect our natural spaces from these detrimental potentials. Further, by including certain exterior requirements on new store construction in the City, these amendments add a level of aesthetic continuity to any newly approved convenience stores and gas stations within the City limits.
  
  
• Finally, we want to ensure that our area businesses are available to applicable and already-existing clientele. By restricting convenience store and gas station locations to City and County commercial districts, to major and minor arterial roads, and to large already-existing retail spaces, these amendments focus new convenience store and gas station clients to areas where similar business is already going on, and away from historical districts and small roads. At the same time, the stipulation that new stores must generally be built at least 1000 feet from each other ensures that retail areas are not overrun with these types of stores.

We want to be clear: as a community, we appreciate convenience stores and gas stations, their owners, and their employees. These stores are a vital part of our lives, and many of us frequent them multiple times a week, if not daily. We also support small business in general and believe that small businesses are a necessary part of our local community.

That said, we also believe it is important for business owners to listen to a community’s needs and to recognize when local opinion is saying that enough is enough. While we appreciate convenience stores, we also believe that there are enough of them in our City and County already and encourage those interested in opening new businesses here to explore other local community needs or requests that are not being met, as we could gladly patronize those.

For these reasons, we stand in support of the Amendments to Articles 3 & 4 of the Unified Land Development Code, as well as the City and County officials that encourage them. 

*Photo from Adobe Stock.

*Contact limestaylorconsulting@gmail.com with questions about this petition.