Plans for a Dollar General at the corner of Route 10 and Peck Street in Jefferson are meeting resistance from residents concerned it will change their community.
They’ll be protesting at the site of the proposed project from 10am-noon this Thursday.
The Planning Board’s concerns over Dollar General are more specific and more concrete, said Chairman Bob Glas.
“We want to make sure that if they’re going to come in, they have to meet certain requirements,” Mr. Glas said.
“That’s what we’re looking at now. We want to make sure they do it right.”
Mr. Glas said Dollar General first approached the Planning Board about a month ago; to date, no formal plans have been submitted, only sketches.
Maybe the biggest issue the Planning Board will have to decide on, Mr. Glas said, is whether to grant a use variance for one of the three pieces of property Dollar General wants to combine for the project, changing it from residential to commercial.
Use variances aren’t required for the two other parcels, Mr. Glas said; one is vacant and one has been used commercially in the past.
Jefferson doesn’t have zoning, Mr. Glas said, but instead adopted a Rural Land Development law requiring site plan review about 10 years ago.
Jefferson also has a Comprehensive Plan that looks at things like the community’s vision for itself and whether projects fit into the rural nature of the area.
That vision doesn’t include a big—or small—box store, said Barbara Palmer, one of those who’ve organized past protests at the site and who’ll be there this Thursday.
“As you drive into town, this would be the first thing you’d see,” she said. “It really doesn’t fit in with the rural character of the town and it runs counter to our Comprehensive Plan.”
Ms. Palmer said the community is also concerned that it will put the E & P Corner Stop convenience store on Route 10 out of business.
Other factors the Planning Board will look at include the project’s impact on federally- and state-protected wetlands, parking, and moving large trucks, not only down Main Street, but also around the sharp turn that Route 10 makes in Jefferson.
The site’s slope and erosion are also concerns.
Additionally, Jefferson’s Comprehensive Plan points to the importance of the historic nature of Jefferson’s downtown buildings—most of them built in the late-1800s—and something Mr. Glas said could be an issue if the Dollar General is the standard issue box with bright lighting.
“The Planning Board smiles favorably on economic development,” he said. “We want economic development, but we also want it to fit in,” Mr. Glas said.
Once Dollar General submits a formal sketch plan and a request for a use variance, Mr. Glas said the Planning Board will schedule a public hearing on the project, something that probably wouldn’t be held before June or July.
If the Planning Board ends up deciding against the project, Dollar General could appeal to the Planning Board of Appeals.
If representatives are unhappy with the decision there, the next stop would be the State Supreme Court.