In Identification of Potential Severance Damages In Retail Gasoline Properties,
service station expert witness Robert E. Bainbridge writes:
Retail gasoline businesses are especially sensitive to access degradation. In some cases impaired access can make the business unviable and the property unmarketable as a gasoline outlet. The potential for severance damages from access management takings should be regarded with greater scrutiny by stake holders and the courts when retail gasoline properties are involved.
Retail gasoline properties, such as convenience stores, derive a significant part of their gross sales, about 50 percent, from the sale of motor fuels. One of the reasons why retail gas properties are particularly sensitive to access management issues is the sale of motor fuel requires retail dispensing improvements, such as underground tanks, dispensers and canopies, that are situated on-site but separate from the building. The placement of the fuel dispensing improvements, car wash and other profit centers involves more intensive use of those portions of the site outside the building footprint. This heightened intensity of the use of the site is a characteristic that is unique to retail gasoline businesses and requires an increased need for accessibility both to and across the site. As a result, access management issues involved with retail gasoline properties are usually more complex than for most other types of properties.