Mar. 15—LENOIR — The proposal for the construction of a new Dollar General has received opposition from residents in the county.
On Monday, March 14, during the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners meeting, Planning Director Shelley Stevens and Broadway Group representative Kristyna Moore presented evidence for the construction of a Dollar General store on Clark's Chapel Road in southwestern Lenoir.
Broadway Group has applied for a Special Use Permit for a 10,640-square-foot retail store, located on a 2.79-acre parcel of land off of Clark's Chapel and Smoky Creek roads. The site is mostly wooded with an open field and sparse natural vegetation facing the road.
According to Stevens, the interested company has already fulfilled or is planning to fulfill every requirement for zoning and code standards, and her recommendation for the board was to approve the Special Use Permit request.
However, three members of the community voiced their concerns about this new retail store being built in their neighborhood.
The first person to speak was Diane Rice, who lives on Clark's Chapel Road right next to the property. She said she was concerned about the increased amount of noise and traffic that the store would most likely bring to her neighborhood.
"We've got a lot of riff-raff that floats around there, they're gonna be hanging out there. And then traffic, the entrance [to the store] is going to be on my side of the road, so I'm going to have problems getting in and out of my driveway," Rice said. "If they did do it, would they put up a privacy fence between my property and the other properties down through there, where we could have our privacy and not have to put up with a lot of people cutting through our yards from up the road or whatever to get to the Dollar General?"
She finished her argument by saying she would really prefer the Dollar General not be built in that location.
The second person to speak was Amy Frady, who lives on Smoky Creek Road adjacent to the property. She had very similar concerns as Rice regarding the amount of noise and traffic the new store would bring. Additionally, she mentioned that there are already multiple Dollar General stores located within five to 10 minutes of this proposed location.
Roger Derreberry, the third person to speak, concurred with his neighbors. He lives on Smoky Creek Road, and his property borders the corner of the Dollar General property.
"I do not see the main need for another retail Dollar General store, or in fact, another retail store of any kind on that piece of property," Derreberry said. "Number one, it will increase the traffic that will be hanging around there, it will increase the noise in our neighborhood, and we have a relatively quiet neighborhood, no problems. I fear that it will probably increase pilfering, it will probably increase people coming by and picking things up that don't belong to them off of neighboring properties."
He suggested that if the board accepts the permit request they should also consider making some recommendations, such as a gate at the property entrance that would prevent parking after hours and the presence of the local sheriff's office to keep an eye on illegal activity at the site.
Kristyna Moore with Broadway Group offered a different perspective on the matter by highlighting the benefits of introducing a Dollar General to this area.
"There's not a lot of options for a retail store out there, and our particular retail store would provide a huge benefit to the community surrounding it by providing essential household goods, groceries, and things of that nature," Moore said.
Moreover, she addressed the concern that property values would decrease with the construction of the Dollar General store.
"We've always collected data throughout the years ... showing that, after we go in and build a store, there's no negative impact to the surrounding property values," Moore said. "If anything, there have been positive impacts to property values, but never any negative from a store that we have built."
Stevens said, "There has been no evidence presented to us at the planning board meeting or any other time up to this point ... to suggest that this Special Use would harm health, safety, or welfare."
Commissioners Mike LaBrose and Donnie Potter also spoke of their concerns about the Dollar General store.
LaBrose said this store, unlike others in the region, will be located in a mostly residential area. He agreed with the necessity for some kind of privacy buffer, such as fencing or trees, between the retail store and the surrounding residential properties.
Moore assured him that every effort would be made by Broadway Group to provide these buffers.
"To the east of the property, there [are] ... existing trees that we plan to leave as a buffer. It's also a policy of ours that any time our property abuts residential property, we put up a privacy fence, either a privacy fence or a tree buffer. In this case, I believe that we're just utilizing existing trees as a buffer between us and the residential property to the east."
Potter voiced concerns regarding the increased amount of trash that would be expected with increased traffic in that area.
"One of the concerns that I have ... you go to any Dollar General right now, and the parking lot is full of trash. My concern would be the trash coming onto the properties."
With no conditions added, the commissioners voted to approve this proposal with LaBrose and Potter dissenting. The Special Use Permit request was approved 3-2.
At the end of the meeting, Department of Social Services Director Will Wakefield and Children's Services Program Administrator Kim Arnett presented a proclamation recognizing March as national Social Work Month.
"We are here this evening not only to recognize our staff in the county who practice social work and work with our families and children and adults in the community, we're also here to recognize the work of social workers who are in our school system, in our hospitals and medical facilities and in hospice, as well as in other local non-profits that work in our communities ... we thank you for this time to come recognize them," said Wakefield.
The theme for this year's Social Work Month is "The Time is Right for Social Work."
"Social workers have continued to push for changes that have made our society a better place to live, including a livable wage, improved workplace safety, and social safety net programs that help ameliorate poverty, hunger, and homelessness," the proclamation stated.
