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Wayne Saunders
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Tab 10
Daily Commercial, The (Leesburg, FL)
January 13, 2005
Clermont residents get their way: No BP
Author: PETE SKIBA
CLERMONT -- A development company smelled defeat and withdrew its proposal for a BP
Station near Kings Ridge. "That's it; they withdrew it. They won't be back," Clermont City
Manager Wayne Saunders said after the Tuesday night City Council meeting. "The people
won."
The Clermont Planning and Zoning Board unanimously advised City Council to defeat the
proposal.
The BP station plan for U.S. 27 and Hartwood Marsh Road ran into heavy opposition from Kings
Ridge residents from the proposal's beginning. Residents raised concerns about fumes from the
gas pumps.
They went on to list complaints on over-commercialization in the area, noise, the planned 24-
hour operating times and traffic congestion.
The BP Station plans called for it to be on an out parcel of an already busy Publix shopping
center. "The traffic at that intersection is terrible now," Councilwoman and King's Ridge resident
Gail Ash said. "This will make a lot of people in King's Ridge happy."
The company has another BP station almost ready to open at U.S. 27 and Grand Highway across
from the Citrus Tower. City staff is reviewing a planned station at Grand Highway and State
Road 50 and a station is under construction further east in the county on S.R. 50.
City Council agreed to buy two lots next to the Clermont Fire Department station on S.R. 50 near
Fifth Street for $100,000. The lots could be used for expanded parking at the station, Saunders
said.
City Council also adopted new cemetery regulations for Oak Hill Cemetery on Lake Avenue
north of S.R. 50. Revisions included dates and places flags, flowers and other grave markers
could be placed in vases and pipes in the ground. Allowed dates permitted are Memorial Day, the
Fourth of July and Veterans Day. Flower bouquets would be removed after 30 days due to
withering. Previously, mourners covered many graves with flowers, pictures, statues, and
mementoes in a haphazard manner.
"This is a compromise," said resident Wally Herda, who has family in the cemetery. "I just wish
we could make the rules in perpetuity."
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