Eric Connor

econnor@greenvillenews.com

Plans for a QT convenience store in the West End have cleared their largest hurdle after Greenville City Council voted to approve new zoning needed to make the project happen at the corner of Academy and North Markley streets.

The council voted 4-2 Monday night after hearing from a series of speakers, both in support and opposed.

The two dissenting votes — Mayor Pro Tem Jil Littlejohn and Councilman David Sudduth — were cast over concerns that a QuikTrip isn't the best use of a prime piece of land that serves as a gateway into downtown Greenville.

Littlejohn, who was serving in place of an absent Mayor Knox White said that she appreciated the company's efforts to alter its design to blend with the urban environment, but that she didn't feel comfortable simply voting for the "lesser of two evils."

Littlejohn said she is concerned that another high-rise residential development could be built there, much like what has happened throughout the West End district.

In voting against the rezoning, Sudduth pointed to a council vote in 2012 not to allow a Spinx convenience store along Buncombe Street at Butler Avenue, where Gene's Restaurant once stood.

Likewise, he said, the Gene's site was a gateway into the city, and he voted against it as part of a 4-3 decision.

Sudduth said he couldn't draw enough distinction between the two proposals and their impact on key city gateways.

The Spinx station a short ways up the road on Pendleton Street is undergoing an extensive renovation to become more aesthetically pleasing as an entry into the Village of West Greenville and will feature locally sourced food as part of a revamped store, Steve Spinx, CEO of the Spinx Company, told the council.

Spinx pointed out how the store's plans on Buncombe Street were voted down without explanation.

The QT rezoning request involved changing a small sliver of the 2.5-acre property from residential to commercial. Another portion was zoned to a classification that would allow less-intensive uses than a gas station.

The city's Board of Zoning Appeals last week approved QT's request to operate 24 hours a day.

Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle said that she supported the project after determining that the area had a good ratio of green space and that she doesn't believe the city can "zone out the competition."

Councilwoman Gaye Sprague said she supported the rezoning in large part because it would create a less-intense use of the land, which sits next to the established West End residential community.

The QT will bring more light and security to an area that is now blighted and nuisance-ridden, said Councilwoman Lillian Brock Flemming, who lives in the district and said she supported what the people who live in the community want.

Councilman George Fletcher, casting his first controversial vote as a new council member, told The Greenville News after the meeting that he voted for the rezoning because there wasn't sufficient cause to overturn unanimous decisions for approval earlier by city planning advisors.

When asked for a show of hands, a vast majority of the crowd that filled the council chambers expressed opposition to the rezoning request.

Another show of hands reflected that a fraction of the crowd that was present lives in the nearby community.

Father Patrick Tuttle of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in the West End spoke against the rezoning, saying that most of the residents are working poor and can't attend meetings.

Tuttle said he represented them and that the community needs other services like a laundry and a bank and not another convenience store when Spinx is undergoing its transformation a few blocks away.

Diane Keller, president of the West End Community Association, said she supports the QT so that it can clean up the area, which has an area known as "The Alley," which she said is the "most horrible place" in downtown Greenville.

QT is in active negotiations to buy the property currently inhabited by Mansour's Liquors store at the corner of Academy and Markley, City Planning Director Mike Kerski said.

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