County Planners back Dollar General for Albion

Site plan goes to Village of Albion Planning Board for final vote on March 12

Photos by Tom Rivers: The Broadway Group wants to knock down this building at 327 East Ave. and build a new 10,640-square-foot Dollar General across from the high school. The Broadway Group will remove three underground storage tanks as part of the project. The current building has been used for auto sales and a warehouse. Ridge Road Station parks school buses on the site.

ALBION – The Orleans County Planning Board on Thursday voted in support of the site plan for a new Dollar General store at 327 East Ave. in Albion, a store that would be across from the high school.

Fagan Engineers created this site plan showing the parking lot with 35 spaces for vehicles and a 10,640-square-foot building.

One Planning Board member, Bruce Kirby of Gaines, opposed the store at that location, saying he is concerned students from the school would eagerly be going to the Dollar General for snacks and likely wouldn’t use the cross walk from the road across from the middle school.

“A lot of us are concerned about putting a candy store across from the school,” Kirby said during the board meeting. “This is a damn bad place to have a store.”

Other Planning Board members noted the zoning as general commercial fits for the store. The site is in a school zone with the speed limit at 20 miles per hour, and there already is an ice cream business next to the proposed site.

There also is a crossing guard at the beginning and end of the school days, and the Albion Police Department also helps monitor the speed on East Avenue.

Kirby said the zoning may allow for the store, but he declared “it’s not safe.”

Dan Strong, the Planning Board vice chairman, noted there is a Dollar General in Lyndonville across from the school. He said he is unaware of any incidents with students and traffic.

Another board member, William Quaranto from Carlton, said he was concerned about delivery trucks being able to negotiate the site. The plan shows them pulling in on one side of the store, and then backing up on part of the site. Then will back in front of the store and be able to exit the site driving forward. The trucks will be limited to exiting from the east only. That was a stipulation by the state Department of Transportation.

Trey Lewis, development manager for the Broadway Group, said many other stores have the same layout for truck deliveries as the one proposed for Albion. He expects there will be one or two Dollar General truck deliveries a week and those deliveries can be scheduled during lower peak times. There will also be trucks from other vendors, such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

The Broadway Group will demolish the existing building and will need to remove three underground tanks. Then it will build the new 10,640-square-foot store with 35 parking spaces.

The project goes before the Village of Albion Planning Board for a final vote on the site at 5 p.m. on March 12. The County Planning Board voted to recommend Albion approve the site plan.

The property is owned by Chris Kinter, the village’s code enforcement officer. He has recused himself from the review of the project with Dan Strong, the Town of Albion code enforcement officer, filling in for the village with this proposal.

The Orleans County Planning Board discusses the site plan for a Dollar General on East Avenue in Albion.