FELLSMERE — Family Dollar will have to look elsewhere if it wants to set up shop in northern Indian River County after the Fellsmere City Council told the company it wasn’t welcome in the downtown district along County Road 512 between Bay and Elm streets.
“It’s not that we don’t want you,” Councilwoman Sara Savage said. “We don’t want you where you want to be.”
Hamilton Hunt, the Family Dollar developer, told the council that he had scouted property near the town center on the south side of CR 512 but the asking price on property for sale was more than $1 million. The property on the north side had a more attractive price tag but would have required the Fellsmere City Council to open up its city codes and go through the process of granting a conditional use for the site.
The property is zoned Residential-Professional Office, which does not automatically allow for developments like Family Dollar.
“I’m concerned this isn’t the appropriate place,” Mayor Susan Adams told Hunt and other representatives of Family Dollar during the Thursday night meeting.
She voiced several concerns, including the necessity of going through a lengthy process to make the store fit the surrounding area.
“It would have to be the perfect package,” Adams said of the store’s design and the property’s layout. “I’m not willing to go through the whole conditional use process.”
Her fellow council members agreed.
Vice Mayor Joel Tyson, along with Council members Fernando Herrera and Jessica Salgado, raised the issue of timing for the store, both noting that a few months ago the Dollar General opened on the east end of town.
“I just don’t see we need it (another dollar store) at this time,” Tyson said, noting he’s heard residents refer to the Dollar General as Fellsmere’s mall. “Too bad you didn’t get here first.”
Hunt said his company had approached the city first but was attempting to find a site nearer the town center. Family Dollar planned a $1.5 million investment in the city, including hiring eight employees for the store and local contractors to construct the building.
Councilwoman Sara Savage told her fellow council members that they couldn’t use the competition argument – be it competition between Family Dollar and Dollar General or between the store and the local mom-and-pop shops – as a reason to deny the Family Dollar store.
She did, however, say that they could deny the project based on the changes to city code they would have to undergo to make the project work.
Savage warned that the city could risk getting farther removed from its downtown vision plan “because we’re so glad to have something” wanting to move in.
Hunt attempted to find a compromise with the council, offering to try to find another location in town for the store. He told the council that if they could reach consensus that another site might work, then he’d pursue the necessary research.
Tyson and Savage said they’d be willing to consider an alternate site. Herrera, Salgado and Adams said a different site would not address the issues they had with the retailer moving into Fellsmere.
“Then I’ll walk away,” Hunt said.
