I was at this little, neighborhood hole-in-the-wall gas station yesterday, putting on gas and buying some candy. A few weeks ago some heedless fool with a U-haul truck, tried to go underneath the old, low canopy, and about rocked the canopy off of its foundation.
The City of Bloomington red-tagged the canopy as ready to fall on customers, so it was cordoned off and taken down.
The manager tells me the City will let him put in the same, low canopy again, but not a taller, flat one that one sees at a BP station which is about 16 feet high.
The owner does not want to put in the same, low canopy because some idiot will tear it out again.
The City is not budging. My hunch, and I have no proof of this, is that the City wants a whole new gas station put in, which under the code, allows for the updated canopy that will not be hit.
This 60 year old gas station is a gold mine for the owner, and a source of cheaper gas for those of us in the neighborhood. The two parties are at loggerheads.
For the owner to build a new gas station with new gas tanks may cost 3 million dollars or so which likely would put him out of business.
I commented to the manager that the City should compromise, and give him a variance, but he was not hopeful that they would.
Government too often puts people out of business, with their rigid rules. There needs to be some compromise and common sense applied, to work with those in business, not force them out of business.
No comments:
Post a Comment