At their regular meeting Monday, the Mt. Carmel City Council is expected to give the go ahead for a new Dollar General to be constructed at the corner of 3rd and Walnut Streets. The city’s board of zoning appeals met Tuesday and approved a zoning variance that would reduce the number of parking spaces at the location from 54 to 35.
Professional land surveyor Roger Nuxoll represented the Dollar General developers at the meeting and said multiple studies have been conducted for the occupancy of Dollar General stores that showed the maximum number of spaces needed at any Illinois D-G store to be between 25 and 30 spaces. Because of the placement of the new location close to a residential area, Nuxoll said many customers were expected to be walk up traffic instead of people driving to the store.
Under the plan, Mayor Joe Judge said the current Dollar General store on West 9th Street would remain open once the new location is opened. More details on the project, such as a projected timeline, could be announced at Monday’s meeting.
Zoning board member Tony Bowles said anything the city can do to bring business to Mt. Carmel and return the location back to the property tax rolls should be done.
The piece of property has not been on the tax rolls since Patriot Motors occupied the location that was later turned into a learning annex by Wabash Valley College.
The zoning board approved the zoning variance petition to reduce the parking spaces to 35 and it will now be up to the city council Monday to either accept the recommendation or reject it.