The growing presence of the Parker’s Kitchen chain of convenience stores in the CSRA is showing itself again as three requests at three prospective locations have made the docket for one of the Columbia County Planning Commission’s meetings next month.
Last summer the Board of Commissioners (BOC) voted to allow the upcoming store at 4099 Jimmie Dyess Pkwy. to operate for 24 hours. That proposed fuel station is currently under construction, and is the subject of a variance request by Charleston signage company Anchor Sign.
The request seeks permission to place 36-square-foot signage on the canopy, rather than the 12 square foot maximum allowed in the county ordinance.
The former site of a Valero gas station and a Dairy Queen, the parcel sits across the street from the former Steak ‘N Shake—and future Chick-fil-A—location.
Anchor Sign, on behalf of the store chain’s parent company Drayton-Parker Companies, has also sought the same variance for its proposed shop on 5170 Columbia Road.
Both variance requests, in the addendum form accompanying the application, cite the respective locations along busy corridors “with high-speed traffic and limited visibility” that “make strict adherence to the sign code an unnecessary hardship.”
Last November, the BOC voted down a similar request for the Parker’s Kitchen location at 5097 Washington Road.
Drayton-Parker is also seeking a variance allowing it to move a billboard at 208 Bobby Jones Expressway., the former site of U.S. Auto Sales. There the company plans to raze the vacant building and develop a 6,500-square foot Martinez convenience store.
The billboard cannot exist on the same property as the proposed store while adhering to the distance requirements, the company contends in the addendum to the variance application.
The Columbia County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider all three requests during its meeting on Feb. 20.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
