Speakers oppose a proposed Daily's gas station, convenience store and car wash in Fruit Cove. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 15, 2026 at 2:09 pm
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Daily’s parent company is taking another swing at developing a gas station, convenience store and car wash at the entrance of a Fruit Cove neighborhood, and residents aren’t happy.
The St. Johns County Commission unanimously denied a similar proposal in 2019.
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Development plans are in early stages for the proposed Daily’s at the intersection of State Road 13 and Otoes Place, and residents of the nearby neighborhood crowded a community meeting Tuesday night to voice their opposition.
Representatives of Daily’s and its parent company, First Coast Energy, hoped the discussion would be a constructive question-and-answer session, but it quickly devolved into an opportunity for nearby residents to air grievances. People applauded and cheered comments against the project and jeered at Daily’s speakers.
Concerns included the convenience store bringing unwanted traffic to the residential area and endangering children walking to their bus stop. There also were fears that toxic chemicals from the gas station and car wash would leach into groundwater.
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Mike Dunlop, the head of the Fruit Cove Estates HOA, even encouraged First Coast Energ to “do the right thing” and consider donating the 7.7-acre parcel of land to St. Johns County to use as a park.
No matter the company’s plans to avoid clear-cutting the plot. “It’s still a gas station,” Dunlop said, “and we don’t want a gas station.”
Other speakers questioned why a new gas station was worth building near their community when there is already a Gate gas station down the road and a Daily’s 3 miles north.
Daily’s Vice President of Marketing Max Glober said St. Johns County’s continued growth warrants the new store.
“At the rate that this area is growing,” he said, “we believe this is also going to be a really good site.”
A gas station? A strip mall?
First Coast Energy already owns the land outside of the Fruit Cove Estates neighborhood. If the latest attempt to get a land-use change approved for the gas station and car wash isn’t approved, representatives for the company said they are already in talks with developers who could build a strip mall plaza on the property.
Attorney Lee Wedekind, representing First Coast Energy, said more cars may stop at the Daily’s, but that most of those visitors would already be traveling on State Road 13. Strip mall visitors, Wedekind said, would go out of their way to come there.
But several speakers still said they would prefer a strip mall to the gas station-convenience store-car wash combo.
Jacksonville Today was unable to reach representatives of First Coast Energy or Daily’s for comment.
The proposed Daily’s is in very early stages, and a site plan would have to be approved by the St. Johns County Commission before the development became a reality.
The County Commission unanimously denied First Coast Energy’s previous application for the complex in 2019, citing incompatibility with surrounding residences and the increased traffic.
This time, a chunk of the 7.7-acre parcel that was previously proposed as 14,000 square feet of office space has been left open to be used as a retention pond and trees.
