(Image by Lee Miller)
While having one of several spats with the gas station manager, he claimed that having this gas station and convenience store next door to my house would increase my property value.
Citation needed, young dude.
Here’s an article titled ” 10 Industries that Diminish Property Values the Most”:
Convenience store with gas station, # 2 on that list.
“Cemeteries, highways, gas stations: Here’s what decreases your property value”:
https://www.lowestrates.ca/blog/homes/cemeteries-highways-gas-stations-can-decrease-property-value
Community and Environmental Defense Services, a US organization has a long article with many links about gas stations and convenience stores, and the impact they may have on a community.
http://ceds.org/convenience.html
The article breaks down the issues which are about zoning, groundwater pollution and the health impacts on people living in the area, and addresses negative issues like lighting, noise, increased crime, traffic and blighting.
“How Safe are Gas Stations ?”
This article addresses a gas station/convenience store’s impact on a neighbourhood, even the ones that are “sited with intent” but also addresses gas stations “long term offsite impacts”.
I couldn’t find any articles about how a convenience store/gas station improved the property value of area residents, though I tried.
I mean – I understood that the location of my house between a factory and a used car lot was going to affect the value. If I was in a beautiful location in the nicest part of town with the same house my property would have cost more. If my house was in a terrible location in Toronto it would be worth at least 5x as much. That’s the value of location. However, I did not know that the City of London offers no protection for a house that is situated next to a commercial property, unless the commercial property is a brand new development from scratch.
Due to the TSSA’s stranglehold on fuel handling code, no Ontario municipality has ANY say about how far a vent has to be located from a residence, or the distance a gas station must be from a residence. However, many much smaller municipalities do have explicit bylaws about fencing between a commercial property and a residence, enclosures for garbage, landscaping and buffering zones:
Prince George, B.C. has a population of approximately 74,000.
London, ON’s 2016 census says it had a population of 494, 069 in the greater metropolitan area. What gives, City of London ?
Black Picket Fence 