Charles City supervisors approve rezoning, creates next steps for construction of new Dollar General store

Highlighted by the box, Charles City supervisors approved the rezoning of an area of land at the corner of Wayside Road and Roxbury Road to begin the construction of a new Dollar General store in the county.

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Plans to bring a new Dollar General store to Charles City County cleared another important hurdle at Tuesday night’s meeting of the board of supervisors.
County leaders unanimously approved the rezoning of 3.8 acres of land from agricultural (A1) to business (B1), following the recommendation of the planning commission.

On Aug. 26, Rhetson Companies pitched a proposal to county planners to rezone the northeast portion of land at the intersection of Route 106 (Roxbury Road) and Route 607 (Wayside Road) in the western part of Charles City. The rezoning would allow for a Dollar General store to be built in the area.

One of the caveats that garnered a favorable recommendation from commissioners was that the store would have a grocery section, something that is much needed in the county based on feedback garnered at county meetings.

The new store would be 10,640 square feet, nearly 1,000 square feet bigger than the current Dollar General located on Courthouse Road in the county.

The favorable recommendation came before the supervisors as part of Tuesday night’s public hearing. While three people spoke on the topic, their focus was more on concerns and not disproval of the proposal.

“I am hoping that if this is approved that the board takes a good hard look at widening Wayside Road from Route 5 (John Tyler Memorial Highway) to Route 106,” commented Preston Adkins. “Even though that is a ‘no-thru’ truck zone, there will be trucks that will travel through there.

“I live near that area and the people over there had to deal with COVID,” said Lloyd Carter Sr. “I hope the people coming in there respect the rights of the area and don’t smoke.”

For Martha Harris, her issues stemmed from the store and how it would attract employees.

“My concern isn’t about the rezoning but the staffing,” she said. “We’re talking about bringing in a larger business, a larger store than the current one that we have.

“Right now, the current Dollar General is closing early because they can’t staff,” Harris added. “It’s inconvenient for someone to drive 15 miles to the story only to see that it’s closed because of staffing issues.”

After a very brief discussion and asking a few follow-up questions related to the store that included the entrance and DEQ requirements, Charles City supervisors passed the measure 3-0 with little discussion on the topic.

In other matters addressed by the board of supervisors:

–Approved passing thru-truck restrictions on Route 600 (Charles City Road) and Route 603 (Old Union Road). The matter returned to public hearing after Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) made recommendations to clean up the language. Adkins was the only commenter during the public hearings.

“I’ve only been driving for 38 years and I got to a lot of places that have a lot worse roads then we have in this county,” he said. “Trucks are going to go where technology takes them.

“I suggest you put up a ‘Ignore GPS’ in Yellow along with a ‘Road Not Safe’ sign for semis instead of a ‘no-thru truck’ sign,” Adkins added. “Truck drivers pay more attention to the yellow signs and if you enforce the ‘no-thru truck’ signs, that includes vehicles that have the license plates that have ‘truck’ on them as well.”

–Received an update on the 106 Master Plan. Gary Mitchell of the county’s community development department provided information that implicates the status of the process through comprehensive rezoning. The process is expected to take approximately nine months with a hope to adopt new zoning regulations and an updated zoning map by the second quarter in fiscal year 2022.