Worcester Gas Station Ban: City Wouldn't Be First In U.S.

WORCESTER, MA — Here's one way to avoid high gas prices: stop building gas stations.

A group of Worcester resident's has asked the City Council to consider amending zoning regulations to prohibit new gas stations from being built. The petition comes after a would-be gas station project along Park Avenue was scuttled late last year.

Neighbors of the proposed gas station next to Austin Liquors argued there were already plenty of filling stations nearby, including one just 400 feet away near the corner of Chandler Street. But some also said that building new gas stations will hurt Worcester's climate change goals.

The Green Worcester Plan adopted by the City Council in April 2021, includes a goal to reduce "greenhouse gas emissions to near zero citywide by 2045." The typical driver using a gas or diesel-powered vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

If approved, Worcester wouldn't be the first city to ban new gas stations. Last April, the City Council in Petaluma, Calif., approved the nation's first new gas station ban.

“I hope other cities will follow suit, and if they have existing fossil fuel stations that satisfy the needs of their community, they too will decide that they don’t need any more,” City Councilor D'Lynda Fischer told the Associated Press last year.

Other California cities have either enacted or proposed bans since Petaluma, and a resident in Myrtle Beach, S.C., has proposed a ban — although it would only place a 500-foot buffer between new stations and homes.

Worcester has dozens of gas stations, many clustered along busy streets located in state-designated environmental justice populations. There are five stations along just a one-mile stretch of West Boylston Street in the Greendale neighborhood, and three located around the Webster Square triangle between Main Street, Mill Street and Park Avenue.

There are also new gas stations on the table. A developer has proposed a Neon Marketplace gas station for a vacant lot near Crompton Park, and a 16-pump Gulf gas station soon set to open on Kelley Square.