N.C. county that once said 'no' to Walmart and Buc-ee's rejected a Dollar General, but the proposal has come back

Dollar General Corp. wants a store in White Cross, N.C., which has become a rural bedroom community. (MapQuest)

The proposed Dollar General store would be a nondescript steel-
clad structure. (News & Observer photo via Glandon Forest Equity)

The small-town zoning fights about retail development were once about Walmart. Now they're about Dollar General Corp., which is trying to be Walmart on a small scale. "Residents of a crossroads community west of Carrboro, North Carolina, thought they had beaten Dollar General last year when the developer withdrew a rezoning application," reports Tammy Grubb of The News & Observer. "But the developer Glandon Forest Equity came back with a new proposal," which Orange County commissioners will hear Tuesday night.

"Most of the land around White Cross [the proposed site] is zoned for agricultural and residential uses. However, neighborhood commercial development serving nearby residents is allowed at the intersection with NC 54," Grubb reports. "Mom-and-pop shops have sprung up around the crossroads. . . . Project documents indicate Dollar General's developer is interested in the over 11,500 cars the state's Department of Transportation says pass the spot on NC 54 each day, but that hasn't eased fears the store would siphon existing businesses' customers. . . . 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."

Nicknamed the "The Paris of Piedmont," some Carrboro residents think a Dollar General is not a good "fit with the community." Grubb writes, "Sally Jo Slusher started Plow Girl Farm about a half-mile east of the proposed site said the proposed Dollar General would be 'massive' and 'very, very out of place.'. . . [Slusher] urges the county to think outside the box about what White Cross could become." Slusher told Grubb, "We really value our neighbors. . . . I frequent Fiesta Grill and Bravos Market. . . . 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."

Kristina Snyder, a Fiesta Grill customer who has lived between Carrboro and White Cross for about 20 years, noted how frustrating it was to see the proposal return. She told Grubb, "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. . . . [and the developer] is not being held to any standards (after) they were told they had to wait at least a year to reapply."

"Unlike surrounding counties dotted with dozens of Dollar General locations, only a handful are located in strip malls in Carrboro, Hillsborough and Chapel Hill," Grubb reports. "Both county staff and residents have raised concerns about the building's appearance, especially since it sits across the highway from the historic 1930s-era White Cross School. . . . 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."

Snyder told Grubb, "And for four more jobs at whatever (wage) Dollar General pays a cashier, that's not building living wages in Orange County." Grubb adds, "She and residents 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."