by Olivia Tucker
Times Reporter
Scott County Advisory Plan Commission voted on ‘no recommendation’ for the approval of a rezoning parcel of Highway 256 from agriculture to general business at their meeting on Aug. 9.
Developer Tom Cowen from Zaremba Group in Lakewood, OH and engineer Whitney Pizzala of AR Engineering in Kalamazoo, MI presented to the advisory planning board plans of putting a Dollar General Market on 2.145 acres on East State Road 256, near the Hardy Lake Entrance.
Dollar General Market has fresh produce compared to other Dollar General stores, an idea that Cowen said Dollar General has been working on for a couple of years on their market version of their stores. Indiana currently has a couple of Dollar General Markets that have been built over the last year.
The building will be owned and managed by Dollar General instead of being leased.
Coby Whittymore, owner of Pioneer Village presented to the board an article from the internet containing 17 problems of how Dollar General chains hurt communities written by Kennedy Smith, a senior researcher for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Independent Business Initiative.
Whittymore said that Dollar General’s purpose is to cater to a community, however, New Frankfort was a dying community and is the closest community that this Dollar General would be servicing. He said that there is no community for this Dollar General to serve in the area.
“There is no community out there,” said Whittymore, “anyone who says there is, is wrong.”
Adrienne Parks who neighbors the parcel spoke up about Scott County’s Comprehensive Plan from 2001, she said, “The Scott County vision based on our comprehensive plan for the county says ‘Scott County intends on preserving its historic small town and agriculture character while promoting integrated and well balanced economic growth’.”
She said that she felt that re-zoning to allow Dollar General there was a violation of the comprehensive plan because of the land being agricultural and the community being as well.
“This is an agricultural part of the county,” said Parks, “it’s not really residential, we have houses there, there aren’t subdivisions. There aren’t neighborhoods, this is rural America, this is rural Scott County.”
Parks also pointed out that putting a Dollar General will affect small businesses such as Pioneer Village and said that it will affect the family as well who own and run the store.
Adrian Sweazy, manager of Pioneer Village and the daughter of Whittymore said that she and her brother want to take over the business of Pioneer Village, being the 3rd generation to run the store, even envisioning her own children taking on the business after her. She felt that putting a Dollar General in the area would hinder that possibility.
The Advisory Plan Commission voted 6-0 with Steve Herald abstaining on ‘no recommendation’ for the Commissioners to make the final decision for the zoning change at their meeting (today) August 16.