Tuesday, June 10, 2025–8:30 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Floyd County Commission has voted to implement a six-month moratorium on the issuance of permits for new convenience stores.

The action follows a similar resolution approved by the Rome City Commission on Monday to address the proliferation of gas stations and mini-marts.

“As we know, there are potentially 30 or more of these sorts of projects that are looking to Floyd County in addition to the ones we already have,” said Assistant Floyd County Attorney Chris Jackson. “We know that we greatly exceed the national average per capita for gas stations and convenience stores in both Rome and Floyd County.”

According to Jackson, a study done by Rome-Floyd County Planning Director Brice Wood showed that local ordinances allow a lot more locations for convenience stores than other comparable communities.

“We want to do a deep dive to figure that out,” Jackson said. “While that happens, we want things to halt. We want to have a pause. I think both an ordinance change on gas stations and convenience stores, and also, potentially, a change as to how we handle business licenses could be in order over the next six months.”

The vote to approve the resolution was unanimous.