When Faye Floyd opened her email just hours before a key zoning meeting for her southwest Atlanta community, she wasn’t expecting the message that followed.
The developer behind a controversial gas station planned for 3397 Greenbriar Parkway SW had withdrawn an application for an alcohol license — a move Floyd and other southwest Atlanta residents had been fighting for since last year.
For Floyd, who chairs Neighborhood Planning Unit P, the moment marked a breakthrough in an ongoing dispute where community members are trying to hold the city of Atlanta accountable for maintaining its own law that bans any new gas stations from being built in their neighborhood.
“Although we didn’t win the fight for the gas station not to be built, they will not be allowed to sell any type of alcohol at the gas station once they open, so we’re going to take that as a win,” Floyd said.
But some doubt whether this victory will last as questions remain about the effectiveness of the local government system and the law that residents say should have kept the business out of their community in the first place.
Betrayed by the city
The controversy traces back to a zoning ordinance designed to limit gas stations in a community that residents say already has too many.
In July 2022, the city ratified SPI-20, a zoning ordinance that prohibited new gas stations from being built on Greenbriar Parkway, an area with about 10 gas stations within a 1-mile radius.
Documents obtained by Capital B Atlanta showed that the gas station’s permits were officially approved by the city in August 2022, a month after the zoning ordinance was ratified. Residents said because of this timeline, they believed the property owner of the gas station, Asif Khan, should not have been legally allowed to construct his gas station in their community.
But city officials took a different position.
They said that because the owner had been in communication with the Department of City Planning about building a gas station before the ordinance took effect that the project could move forward, effectively grandfathering in the gas station despite the new restrictions.
For residents like Amber Burks, the distinction between informal conversations and formal approvals never felt right.
“When is an application actually considered started?” Burks said. “Is it when you send an email? Or when paperwork is signed?”
After losing the initial fight, residents turned their attention to alcohol sales, as the ordinance also bans alcohol from being sold at new developments in the area.
Community members say that ensuring that this portion of SPI-20 is upheld is a way to minimize the possible damage the gas station could bring to the community.
Floyd raised concerns about loitering and litter and worried about the gas station’s proximity to a day care and nearby senior housing. Burks pointed to similar concerns, including negative impacts to overall neighborhood conditions as multiple gas stations are already operating nearby.
Gas stations in residential areas can increase community exposure to toxic air pollutants like benzene, a carcinogen that can increase asthma symptoms, cause wheezing, and more, according to Beyond Toxics, an environmental advocacy group.
Floyd said in a recent NPU-P meeting she pushed back on Khan and his attorney’s plans for getting an alcohol license, citing that it would go against the ordinance and it wouldn’t be approved.
City Councilman Wayne Martin, who oversees the community’s district, also said he was against the business receiving an alcohol license.
“I became a part of the efforts to make sure that a license was not granted to the location just by making word known that there is no will for this community at all to support a liquor license,” Martin said.
After finding out the owner rescinded their application for the alcohol license last week, Burks and Floyd said they felt that this was a win for protecting their neighbors.
“I’m still not happy about having the gas station there in the first place, and I don’t think that’s something that I’ll ever be on board with, but knowing that they’re not going to be able to sell liquor, especially so close to a day care, so close to the senior homes in the community, I’m really happy with hearing that they’ve withdrawn their application,” Burks said.
The fight may not be over
But even with the withdrawn application, the developer could still resubmit an application in the future.
“I think they’re going to do whatever they can to get it,” Burks said. “That’s the whole point … to make money.”
Floyd said the community is prepared to monitor any future attempts.
“Now, it doesn’t mean they will not try to reapply,” she said. “We’re going to stay diligent.”
If a business wants to sell alcohol in Georgia, it must obtain an alcohol license through the local municipality and one from the state. However, in an email to Capital B Atlanta, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Revenue, which oversees the approval of state alcohol licenses, said that a local license must be issued prior to any state license.
In a statement provided through his attorney, Khan declined to comment directly on the withdrawn alcohol license application.
“We are not in a position to comment on the prior alcohol license application at this time,” said Hakim Hilliard, Khan’s attorney, in an email to Capital B Atlanta.
“Mr. Khan appreciates the work City staff and community members have put into this corridor over many years, and he recognizes that this is a difficult situation for everyone,” the statement said. “He followed the standard approval process and has already invested seven figures based on those approvals, and he does not control when or how policy debates unfold. He understands why people are frustrated by how the timing worked out, but he hopes it is clear that no one in his position would knowingly risk that kind of investment on the chance of slipping in under a last‑minute rule change, and he had no idea the law was changing when he began this process.”
He said that Khan remains committed to operating “a safe, clean, compliant business” and is open to working with neighbors.
For now, the gas station remains under construction and is not yet operational. Residents say they’ve accepted that it will likely open, but view the alcohol license fight as proof that community advocacy can still shape outcomes, even within a system they see as imperfect.
“This has made us a little bit more aware as a community of how important it is to advocate and see what the zoning laws are,” Burks said. “Just because we are unhappy about something doesn’t mean we always need to take it at face value and take it for what the city or whoever says this is how it has to be.”
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This story has been updated.
