Dollar General Hearing Continues On May 23

Bonnie Van Slyke is a member of the Charlestown Town Council and also serves as the Town Council Liaison to the Planning Commission. Below she has shared her letter to the editor in which she summarizes the process that the application for a Dollar General store in Charlestown has and will follow and a review of the Dollar General meeting on April 18.

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To the editor:

An application to build a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General store—a building that would significantly impact the character of Charlestown’s Traditional Village District and also its Historic Village District—will be heard on May 23 by the Planning Commission. This public meeting is an opportunity for all to comment on the building’s architectural design and on the design of the site.

What: Continuation of the Dollar General hearing before the Planning Commission
When: Wednesday, May 23rd at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Elementary School

The Dollar General store would be located on a lot that fronts on Old Post Road and on Narrow Lane. The entrance to the store would be on Old Post Road. This meeting is a part of the Planning Commission‘s Master Plan review and is the continuation of a meeting held on April 18.

The elementary school was chosen for the May 23 meeting because if more than 100 people attend, the meeting would exceed the capacity of the Town Council chambers and would need to be canceled. Because of the time limit afforded for its review, the Planning Commission must make a decision at the May 23 meeting or, should the applicant request an extension, at a special meeting in early June.

Review of the April 18 meeting:

The first meeting was held on April 18. At that meeting, the Planning Commission Chair, Ruth Platner, gave a history regarding this proposal and explained the process going forward:

• An application to construct a Dollar General store in the town’s Traditional Village District was first presented about two years ago.
• The town’s Zoning Official, Joe Warner, ruled that the application was for a department store and that department stores are not an allowed use in the district.
• The applicant appealed the Zoning Official’s decision to the town’s Zoning Board of Review.
• The Zoning Board upheld the Zoning Official’s decision that the application was for a department store, a use that is not allowed in the town’s Traditional Village District.
• The applicant then appealed the Zoning Board’s decision to the RI Superior Court.
• The RI Superior Court ruled that a Dollar General is a general store, not a department store, and that as a general store it is an allowed use in the town’s Traditional Village District.
• As a result, the applicant has applied to the Planning Commission for review as a general store.
• This review is Master Plan review, the first stage of review by the Planning Commission.
• The Planning Commission cannot review the use because that was decided by the Superior Court.
• The Planning Commission will look at architectural design and site plan design, including drainage, parking, traffic, lighting, etc., and will determine whether these conform to the town’s Zoning Ordinance.
• The review by the Planning Commission is called Master Plan review, the first stage of review before the Planning Commission.
• Besides needing approval from the Planning Commission, the applicant also needs approval from the Zoning Board of Review and a Special Use Permit because the proposed building is over 5,000 square feet.

Because the application, as it works its way along, will be reviewed under several zoning ordinances and major land development regulations, the Chair asked the Town Planner, Jane Weidman, to explain the different portions of the Zoning Ordinance and Major Land Development Regulations that apply. A general list is given below. The list may not be the complete list, and the text that is quoted below is provided to give an idea of the intent of the code. Readers are asked to read particular ordinances in the Code, which is available online, for more detail.

• 218-45 Historic Village District

“The purpose of the Historic Village Overlay District is to protect, preserve and maintain the quality of the Town’s villages, to preserve the Town’s heritage, cultural and architectural qualities, to foster civic beauty, to strengthen the local economy and to promote the use of such districts for the education, pleasure and welfare of the citizens of the Town.”

• 218-49. Traditional Village District

“The purpose of the TVD is to encourage small-scale business and residential uses consistent with the historic and pedestrian-scale characteristics that exist and which are unique to Charlestown village, to preserve the Town’s heritage, to strengthen the local economy, to continue small town character and aesthetics and to promote the general welfare of the Town.”

• 218-56 – 60. Parking
• 218-74. Landscaping
• 218-71. Development Plan Review
• 218-46. Groundwater Protection District
• 218-23. Special use permits
• 188. Land Development Regulations – Major Land Development

On April 18 the engineer for the applicant presented. The presentation included changes that had been made by the applicant to the building design and to the site plans since a pre–application meeting.

Drawings, two of which are reproduced below, showed changes to the south side of the building (facing the parking lot) and north side of the building (facing Narrow Lane). Changes also included, on the west and south sides of the building, façades that simulated a half-story roofline with gables with simulated windows. The windows on the side of the building shown were also simulations. The entrance was now a corner feature that wraps the southwest corner of the building. The site plans showed updated elevations, parking to the side and at the rear of the building, additional trees in the parking lot and along the perimeter, and a wood fence that was incorporated along the back, inside the buffer (between the site and the residentially zoned property to the east). A sidewalk is not included.

Samplings of comments made by members of the Planning Commission and by members of the public and a link to a video of the April 18 meeting follow the drawings.

Planning Commission Comments:

• This is the most architecturally and aesthetically sensitive district in the town, and the submitted plans do not fit the town standards.
• Go back to Dollar General and ask if it is possible to submit a 5,000-square-foot building rather than one that is over 9,000 square feet
• Use the town’s Village Design Manual, which was recently used to design the Shannock Village Cottages. The design principles in the Village Design Manual can be applied as well in Cross’ Mills. Do a total redesign of this building. The Village Design Manual has many examples of large two-story buildings that have the form and massing that would complement the Cross’ Mills Historic District. There are Colonial, Greek Revival, and Victorian examples.
• Use traditional forms and massing, traditional windows and window placement, and traditional roof forms.
• Make the building two stories. It’s too large of a single mass as it is now designed; it is out of scale to the rest of the village.
• Show a sidewalk on the plans.
• The entrance to the parking area is nearly twice as wide as town roads; it should not be wider than the town roads.
• Parking areas should be permeable.
• There should be more plantings in the buffer.
• There must be a traffic study.
• Lighting should be off at night, and when on, lighting should be the minimum necessary.

Public Comments

There were about 70 members of the public present, and 11 spoke against the application. No one spoke in favor. The comments were generally as follows and give a sense of the opinions expressed:

• Try to keep it compatible as much as possible to the immediate surrounding area of the TVD.
• Keeping buildings in character with the TVD is important.
• The plan and associated negative impacts on the community are inconsistent with Dollar General’s mission statement
• The building is too close to homes.
• There will be a negative impact on home values.
• Directly across the road from the site are two historic homes that have been restored at great expense and time spent.
• The project is completely out of character for this town.
• Plastic waste and littering will increase.
• The application is not in compliance with our idea of small business.
• There are concerns about buffering, lighting, rubbish, traffic, and runoff.
• One individual said that he hoped, “the applicant hears that we do not want Dollar General in Charlestown. If you have to build here and don’t get the message, then maybe you can put 4,500 square feet in Charlestown and put your other 4500 square feet in the next town.”

Click to see a video of the April 18 meeting. The Dollar General discussion begins about 24 minutes into the video.

You can send any comments you may have about this or any other proposal before the Planning Commission to plan.comments@charlestownri.org. Comments will be compiled and sent to the Commission in their monthly packets.

Very truly yours,
Bonnie Van Slyke, Charlestown, RI

Bonnie Van Slyke is a member of the Charlestown Town Council and Liaison to the Planning Commission.