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Editor:

7-Eleven is currently developing a filling station at the corner of Harbour View and Champions Way in North Suffolk. Building an establishment like 7-Eleven within 200 feet of a vibrant school/daycare center is, at a minimum, thoughtless, and at worst, an example of reckless endangerment. As a grandparent of a child at the daycare center, I’m asking you to reconsider your reckless plan to make a sensitive area dangerous and potentially deadly.

How many, if any, of the following were taken into account when the decision was made to allow a gas station/convenience store to be built at the corner of this busy intersection:

• Alcohol sales and crime.
• Blighting – Since 1994 the number of service stations in the U.S. has decreased by about 33%.
• Community character – Bringing service stations back to urban areas populated with doctors and dentists.
• Crime – Convenience store holdups account for 6% of all of the robberies in the nation.
• Health effects – A number of components injurious to human health are released from gas stations during vehicle fueling and from underground storage tank vents.  These include benzene. Increased levels of benzene have been shown to significantly increase the rates of childhood leukemia. These studies were conducted near filling stations.
• Lighting impacts – Bright lights are synonymous with filling stations.
• Noise – Loud noises like tire air guns and idling diesels.
• Food swamps -The introduction of another convenience store offering few if any nutritional, healthy foods.
• Piling on – Already there are five gas station/convenience stores within a one mile radius of the Harbour View/Champions Way intersection.
• Property values – Highways, cemeteries, railroad tracks, industrial areas, and gas stations are the largest contributors to reducing property values
• Traffic – What will this do to an already dangerous intersection? Then add in the delivery of at least 12,000 gallons of fuel per week.
• Visual Impacts – Few homeowners include a gas station/convenience store in their wish list for a view.

I’m begging you to consider the community, and our youngest and most vulnerable members, before you move forward. Stay with the current theme of the area, doctors and dentists. They don’t store thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals, and don’t pose the threat of armed robbers.

Mark Downing

Resident of the Masters Condominium Association