The former Timberwolf Restaurant location at 1658 Broadway Road, Darien, dilapidated, overgrown, and vacant for many, many years, is likely to soon become the new location for the seventh Dollar General store in Genesee County.
The Genesee County Planning Board is being asked to approve a site plan review and area variance at its Thursday meeting to allow the project to go forward.
The planning staff recommends approval with modifications.
The requested modifications are that the signage complies with the town's zoning regulations and that the applicant gets State DOT approval for a driveway permit.
The applicant is The Broadway Group LLC based in Huntsville, Ala.
Dollar General is based in Goodlettsville, Tenn. and operates 17,000 retail stores nationwide.
The plan calls for the crews to demolish the Timberwolf building, which sits on a 3.08-acre lot, and construct a 10,640-square-foot store at a total project cost of $574,550.
Howard Hanna currently lists the property but with a sale pending. The listing price was $199,900.
The current owners are Johnson and Sons LLC.
Broadway Group is seeking an area variance to reduce the number of parking spaces outside the store from the required 73 to 35. In a letter with the application package, Jade Haynes, Dollar General's plan coordinator for the Northeast region, the company says operating 17,000 has given the company a significant amount of data to understand a store's parking needs. The stores average 15 to 20 transactions per hour.
"We have estimated and confirmed that 35 spaces will accommodate the customer flow rate that our business generates," Haynes states. "This standard has also been sufficient for traffic generated at peak Christmas season levels."
The application notes that the property is large enough to accommodate more parking spaces but that more spaces are unnecessary for the business.
"Less asphalt improves drainage and allows for more green space," the application states.
A staff member with The Broadway Group wrote on the application that the project will "bring new life" back to a part of Darien that is currently marked by a building that has fallen into disrepair.
"This is not a destination location," the application states. "The proposed development will serve traffic that already uses Broadway Road as a means of transversing to and from work or home."
The only other item on Thursday's Planning Board agenda is site plan review for a new contractor's yard at 9904 Alleghany Road, Darien. The staff is recommending approval with modifications.
The Planning Board meets at 7 p.m.Thursday in the large conference room of County Building 2, 3837 W. Main Street Road, Batavia.
Top photo: Via Google Street View.
