Officials have rejected a plan for a 7-Eleven-style store at a notoriously busy intersection.
The Lady Lake Commission on Monday night voted 3-2 to deny a request for a convenience store and gas station at the intersection of Rolling Acres Road and County Road 466.
The property’s owner had hoped to be granted a special exception to build the convenience store and gas station to include a car wash on roughly four acres of land on the northwest corner of the intersection, not far from the Rolling Acres Sports Complex.
Attorney Jimmy Crawford, representing the property owner CLD Properties LTD, said the convenience store and gas station would likely be a 7-Eleven, and ruled out that it could be a Wawa or RaceTrac, due to the insufficient size of the property.
“They use too much room,” he said.
Crawford had with him a traffic engineer who tried to make the case that the 7-Eleven-style store would be a better fit at the intersection than a fast-food restaurant, such as a Chick-fil-A. They reasoned that those stopping at a 7-Eleven would be a “quick in and out.” The traffic engineer noted that Lake County has plans to expand Rolling Acres Road.
“It isn’t supposed to start until 2049,” Mayor Ed Freeman pointed out.
Commissioner Ed Regan, a resident of The Villages who previously served on the Lady Lake Planning Commission, was unrestrained in his comments about the proposed convenience store and gas station at the intersection, which is frequently the scene of crashes.
“This is crazy. This is going to be a real quagmire,” Regan said.
Commissioner Treva Roberts said she had spoken with Summit Medical Properties, which would be the nearest neighbor to the convenience store and gas station.
“They are opposed to it,” Roberts said.
Commissioner Amanda McLea made a motion to approve the project and allow it to move forward. However, her motion died for a lack of a second.
Roberts, whose ward includes this particular property, made a motion to deny the request for the special exception and essentially kill the project. She was joined in the majority 3-2 vote by Commissioners Regan and Mike Sage.
In 2018, there was another push to build a 7-Eleven at the same intersection.