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NC community thought it defeated Dollar General, but developer returned with new plan

Residents of a crossroads community west of Carrboro thought they had beaten Dollar General last year, when the developer withdrew a rezoning application to build a new store.

But the developer Glandon Forest Equity LLC came back with a new proposal, and on Tuesday, April 4, it will have a public hearing in front of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Whitted Building in Hillsborough.

Most of the land around 3026 White Cross Road is zoned for agricultural and residential uses. However, neighborhood commercial development serving nearby residents is allowed at the intersection with N.C. 54, and the historically rural community has grown in popularity.

No longer do neighbors have to go to town to grab a bite to eat, buy gas or a six-pack of beer to go, get their car fixed, or shop for produce and other essentials, because of the mom-and-pop shops that have sprung up around the crossroads in the last 30 years.

Project documents indicate Dollar General’s developer is interested in the over 11,500 cars the N.C. Department of Transportation says pass the spot on N.C. 54 each day, but that hasn’t eased fears the store would siphon existing businesses’ customers.

Sally Jo Slusher started Plow Girl Farm about a half-mile east of the proposed site because it was the only part of southern Orange County that wasn’t under development, she said.

The proposed Dollar General would be “massive” and “very, very out of place,” she said, urging the county to think outside the box about what White Cross could become.

“We really value our neighbors … and I frequent Fiesta Grill and Bravos Market all the time,” Slusher said. “All these little businesses out here, I do business with, and I think our whole community sort of feels this way, or most of us. This is not a good fit for our community.”

Residents of White Cross, a rural crossroads community in southern Orange County, supports multiple small, local businesses in a quarter-mile stretch of N.C. 54 west of Carrboro.
Residents of White Cross, a rural crossroads community in southern Orange County, supports multiple small, local businesses in a quarter-mile stretch of N.C. 54 west of Carrboro.

It’s also frustrating to see the plan back again, said Kristina Snyder, a Fiesta Grill customer who has lived between Carrboro and White Cross for about 20 years.

“I recognize that ‘no’ is never forever, but it seems like it’s totally unfair because all of the burden is now on community members to first go to a hearing and then go to the Planning Board, and now go to the county commissioners,” Snyder said. The developer is “not being held to any standards (after) they were told they had to wait at least a year to reapply.”

New rezoning plan, new details

That’s because the latest plan seeks a different kind of rezoning and includes more details about what could be built, Cy Stober, the county’s planning and inspections director, told The News & Observer in an email.

The first plan was withdrawn last year after the Planning Board voted 9-2 to recommend the commissioners deny the project. The public hearing was already advertised, however, so the withdrawal counted as a denial, triggering a one-year waiting period.

Stober noted that plan was for a conventional zoning, which would have allowed over 110 potential commercial and residential uses, and it didn’t include details about the project, or any commitments, such as ways to ease stormwater and traffic problems.

The proposed Dollar General store would be a nondescript steel-clad structure with a 35-space parking lot off White Cross Road, west of Carrboro.
The proposed Dollar General store would be a nondescript steel-clad structure with a 35-space parking lot off White Cross Road, west of Carrboro.

The new plan seeks a conditional zoning, which lets the commissioners negotiate with the developer for community desires and limits potential uses to just a retail store. It also addresses specific details about the store’s appearance, traffic and stormwater, he said.

The proposed 10,640-square-foot Dollar General store and its 35-space parking lot would cover roughly an acre of the 4.83-acre site, where a two-story community store building now sits vacant. The plan is to build the Dollar General next year and hire four employees, documents said.

Both county staff and local residents have raised concerns about the building’s appearance, especially since it sits across the highway from the historic 1930s-era White Cross School. Traffic is also a key issue, especially since turning right or left out of White Cross Road can be dangerous and sometimes almost impossible.

Most Dollar General daily traffic — 83 trips in and out of the parking lot — would be in the evening, a traffic study said. It recommended keeping the stop sign at White Cross Road and adding a southbound right turn lane on White Cross Road into the new parking lot.

A developer wants to build a Dollar General store where this two-story former country store stands at the corner of White Cross Road and N.C. 54 in southern Orange County. Residents and local businesses are fighting the proposed rezoning.
A developer wants to build a Dollar General store where this two-story former country store stands at the corner of White Cross Road and N.C. 54 in southern Orange County. Residents and local businesses are fighting the proposed rezoning.

County fields dollar store plans

The White Cross store is not the first “dollar store” planned for Orange County, but unlike surrounding counties dotted with dozens of Dollar General locations, only a handful are located in strip malls in Carrboro, Hillsborough and Chapel Hill.

Family Dollar, which is owned by Dollar Tree and has followed in Dollar General’s footsteps, opening storefronts in small towns and rural communities where other retailers don’t go, submitted a plan last year for the Cedar Grove community north of Hillsborough.

That plan was withdrawn after the Planning Board voted 9-2 to recommend denying the permit, saying it did not follow the county’s future land-use plan and “would not be harmonious with the surrounding area or reflect the desires of the community.”

The Planning Board also recommended denying Dollar General’s latest plan for White Cross, Chairman Adam Beeman said.

Orange County and its towns have a history of rejecting projects that its residents don’t like, from Walmart in the 1990s and early 2000s to Buc-ee’s in 2021.

Snyder and others noted that a Dollar General store in Carrboro Plaza, just five miles east, is poorly stocked and occasionally closed during business hours, often with a hastily written note in marker pinned to the door.

“The idea that they have one employee in there at any given time is an enormous safety concern for that employee,” Snyder said. “And for four more jobs at whatever (wage) Dollar General pays a cashier, that’s not building living wages in Orange County.”

She and others who spoke with The N&O said they would rather see the land being used to add more or expand existing mom-and-pop stores, provide park or green space, or create room for a farmer’s market.

“I’ve got my blood, sweat and tears I have poured into this property and into this farm, and at the end of the day, a dollar store is not going to do anything … to enhance our community and help us with our property values,” Slusher said.