Mathews supervisors voted Tuesday night to endorse proposed changes to a conceptual plan for a new Dollar General Market to be built at the intersection of Routes 198 and 3 at Cobbs Creek. The action follows a joint public hearing last Thursday night with the Mathews County Planning Commission.
The Dollar General application was the topic of just one of three public hearings held last week. Supervisors also approved a comprehensive plan amendment to modify the Public Facilities and Service section to provide greater detail for the siting of solar facilities. Supervisors tabled action on a third matter, a text amendment to the zoning ordinance to clarify the regulations on open dumps.
The revised Dollar General conditional use permit application by Rhetson Companies, LLC, which planners also unanimously endorsed, includes changing the commercial portion of the plan along Twiggs Ferry Road to retail and removing multi-family residential units altogether. This would enable the company to build a store facing Twiggs Ferry Road instead of Buckley Hall Road, Planning and Zoning Director James Knighton explained.
Board chair and planning commission liaison Paul Hudgins expressed his enthusiasm for the potential Dollar General Market and how it would be a great way to bring groceries to “the other end of the county.” During Tuesday night’s meeting, supervisor Mike Walls said that Dollar General expects the store to be one of the biggest ever constructed for this type of market, adding that it will offer fresh meat and produce.
During public comment last Thursday, Cobbs Creek resident Bonnie Meeks asked Rhetson project manager John Parker how long it would take for the store to be completed. Parker said construction typically takes about 160 days, but is sometimes faster.
A conditional use permit application for construction of the new Dollar General is expected to the subject of a public hearing in December.
The next public hearing was on a text amendment to the zoning ordinance to clarify the regulations on open dumps. The proposed text amendment would not allow open dumps to be placed in front of a primary structure. The planners unanimously voted to recommend the amendment. However, the board of supervisors voted to place the matter on hold for a month at chairman Paul Hudgins’s request. He explained that it was a complex issue that needed to be examined more thoroughly in order to “get it right.”
The final public hearing was on a comprehensive plan amendment to modify the Public Facilities and Service section to provide greater detail for the siting of solar facilities.
The planners unanimously voted to recommend removal of all language associated with solar facilities in the comprehensive plan, and the board of supervisors concurred during Tuesday night’s meeting.
According to Knighton, this action would ensure no large-scale solar facility could meet the requirement to be substantially in accord with the comprehensive plan. However, he explained that this will not prevent solar CUP requests since solar is a listed use in the zoning ordinance.