Blight Vs. Climate Change In Bid For New Worcester Gas Station

WORCESTER, MA — A plan to build a gas station on a vacant parcel along Park Avenue has been scuttled — at least temporarily — after meeting resistance from local residents and elected officials.

The firm Prayosha Realty Trust went to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to get a special permit to build a combined car wash and gas station on a group of parcels near the Austin Liquors at 370 Park Ave.

One of the parcels, located at 360 Park Ave., is a notorious piece of vacant land in Worcester. It contains a squat red office building with a grassy concrete paddock in front nearly the size of a football field. Plans called for that to be replaced by 12 fuel pumps, a 3,600 square-foot tunnel car wash and a 1,280 square-foot "laser car wash."

At Wednesday's meeting, Prayosha Realty Trust attorney Joshua Lee Smith began by underscoring how far away, in his estimation, other gas stations are. The closest is 850 feet up Park Avenue, the other one, a Gulf, is about 1,700 feet away, he said.

"Not even in the same neighborhood," Smith said of the Gulf station.

Smith also talked about how dilapidated the Park Avenue site is (it also sits next to a collection of other empty, overgrown lots behind a Walgreen's). Smith said the parcel has been vacant for years, and there may not be another development opportunity coming. Plans also call for stormwater upgrades at the site, including rain gardens.

"This is the one opportunity that's coming to the city on a silver platter," he said.

Smith's remarks highlighted a dilemma facing Worcester and other urban centers: should the city set aside its carbon reduction goals in favor new developments that add jobs and reduce blight? In 2019, the Worcester City Council adopted a resolution declaring a climate emergency. The Green Worcester Plan adopted by the City Council in April seeks to reduce "greenhouse gas emissions to near zero citywide by 2045."

District 5 Councilor Matthew Wally attended Wednesday's meeting to speak in favor of the project, saying it would "increase tax revenue and offer well-paying jobs." He said he's spoken to local residents who want the vacant properties along Park Avenue gone.

But ZBA member Jordan Berg Powers cut against Smith's argument about the need for the gas station. Nearby gas stations are very close, he said, and felt like he was "being gas lit" about the benefits of the project.

"I'm trying to get over feeling like I'm being lied to or treated like a moron in this presentation. Eight-hundred and fifty feet in car, are you kidding me? It's across the street," he said of the distance to the nearby Speedway station.

Resident Oliver Chadwick, who lives along nearby Maple Tree Lane, said he would not feel pride about the vacant lot becoming a gas station. Resident Tom Francis underscored that the development will draw many more cars, a hazard for pedestrians walking along Park Avenue.

"Building more fossil fuel infrastructure is the absolute last thing we should be doing right now," Chadwick said.

City Councilor-elect Etel Haxhiaj, who will take over Wally's District 5 seat in January, also opposed the project. She doubted a gas station is the only use for the vacant land.

"We're not building a city for the 1950s," Haxhiaj said of car-focused nature of the project.

Ultimately, Smith asked the ZBA to let him withdraw the project, possibly because there were not enough votes to approve it. City zoning rules require four members to vote in favor of any special permit, which was likely not possible on Wednesday.

ZBA alternate member Robert Haddon recused himself from voting, leaving only Chair Joseph Wanat, Berg Powers, George Cortes, Russell Karlstad and alternate member Nathan Sabo to vote. Sabo and Berg Powers had already voiced opposition to the project, leaving only three possibly "yes" votes.

The ZBA voted 5-0 to allow Prayosha to withdraw the project without prejudice.

Immediately following the Park Avenue gas station vote, a second proposal to build a gas station on a vacant parcel along Quinsigamond Avenue came before the ZBA. An attorney representing the developer asked for — and was granted — a postponement until the Jan. 10 meeting.