Neighbors rally for dead-end street

Published 8:33 am Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Gardendale officials will soon welcome a new Dollar General store with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The new building is under construction as heavy equipment is on site preparing the land for concrete workers and brick masons.

But don’t count on many of the neighbors to celebrate and attend the grand opening ceremony.

The retail chain is building a new store at the corner of Fieldstown Road and Phillips Drive, about two miles west of Interstate 65. The main entrance to the store will be at the east entrance of Phillips.

Neighboring residents, especially those who live on Phillips, are concerned about the extra traffic they may encounter should shoppers choose to exit at the west end of their street that loops back to Fieldstown Road as a second point of entry and exit.

In an effort to restrict commercial traffic flow, nearby residents have rallied to convince city leaders to install a dead end at the north border of Dollar General’s property on Phillips Drive. It has not been a formal city council agenda item, but residents have let some council members know how they feel.

Council member Wendell Phillips represents District 5, which encompasses the property in question. He heard about the desire of a city-installed dead end on Phillips Drive to block any additional traffic on the residential street where he owns property, but does not live there.

“I would like to have discussions with all the council members before that decision is made. Before we close that street, I am not sure that is the right thing to do at this point in time,” said Phillips. “I think (Dollar General) will draw most of their customers from the west. There would be no reason for the customers to go down Phillips Drive because they can turn out and go west. But to close a public road that has been open for 55 years because you don’t want traffic through there, I don’t know. The road is so narrow that I don’t think people would drive down it anyway.”

Phillips was concerned if the city put up a dead end, it would be difficult for large emergency vehicles to back out of the narrow street. The councilman said he has met with Dollar General officials trying to get an entrance and exit off Fieldstown Road, but he said it appears that will not happen. Therefore, the main entrance and exit will most likely be off Phillips Drive.

The potential issue local residents have is the expected increase of traffic on a road that is already well-traveled. Residents expressed their opinions at a Planning and Zoning Board meeting when Dollar General first began planning its third store in the city.

Mark Cornelius is the homeowner that lives closest to the new retail store under construction. He does not understand why city leaders have a problem with creating a dead or cul-de-sac turnaround area to prevent traffic flow through a residential street. In addition, he believes it could affect the security the local residents now enjoy.

“I am probably one of the ones that is pushing  for that the most,” said Cornelius. “(City leaders) have talked about using some of my property to make a deadened so that emergency vehicles can turn around. That is some of the stipulations they have put out there. They said there needs to be a place where a bus needs to turn around. At the end of the culdesac where I live there are only two houses so I don’t know why they would need a bus to come down and turn around, so it makes no sense. They also said there needs to be a place for a garbage truck to turn around which my driveway and the road attached to it is plenty of space for them to turn around because there is not another house past mine if we did a deadened. As far as emergency vehicles are concerned, they could do the same thing but if they require some type of a T where the entrance to the Dollar General were to be if there was a dead just past Dollar gene, then I would be willing for them to use a few feet of my property for them to do that.”

Cornelius said he has spoken with another landowner who also would donate some land to make room for a turnaround area. He added that other property owners will cooperate with the city to make the dead end a reality.

“I don’t know why the city council is having an issue with this,” said Cornelius. “If our city council was truly looking out for what is best for our neighborhood, and this is in Mr. Phillips’ district, and if he is not listening to what everybody has agreed to and not listening to what the voters want, then there’s only one thing we can do,” Cornelius said referring to the upcoming fall elections.

One of the reasons against the rezoning request was a safety issue of vehicles entering and exiting the business on a hilly stretch of Fieldstown Road. Phillips said he has met with Dollar General officials several times wanting the company to pay for installation of a blinking caution light similar to the one beside the entrance to the Cluster Springs subdivision. The light alerts motorists if there is an approaching vehicle for safe turning. However, Dollar General officials have not yet responded to Phillips.

Cornelius pointed out that Phillips Drive has no shoulders, only open drainage ditches. He said residents who know the street very well has trouble staying on the road meeting traffic, and believes that motorists unfamiliar with the residential street would have more difficulty navigating than residents, especially at night.

Dollar General originally wanted to build on the larger lot adjacent to the location’s east border that would have given the store a Fieldstown Road address, but neighbors in the immediate vicinity successfully lobbied to kill the commercial rezoning request. The retailer wanted to have a larger building, but after their request for rezoning was denied the solution was to build a smaller store that prevented any issue as an agenda item for the city council.

“If it had, council members could have had an opportunity to negotiate with the retailer,” Phillips said. “However, the retailer decided to reduce the size of the store and make it work for them.”

One of the reasons against the rezoning request was a safety issue of vehicles entering and exiting the business on a hilly stretch of Fieldstown Road.

Protestors again voiced concerns over the traffic dangers of rezoning the adjacent larger lot to commercial when the request was made at the Gardendale Planning and Zoning Board. The board denied the request and forwarded an unfavorable recommendation to the Gardendale City Council and council members then unanimously denied the request.

City leaders and Phillips Drive residents were not in favor of Dollar General building on that site, but could not stop Dollar General from building because the lot was already zoned commercial that allows a business operation. Over the years, that commercial lot had previously been home to a gas/service station, a butane gas business and an aluminum siding company.

Cornelius said homeowners may exercise their power on Election Day.

“If our city council was truly looking out for what is best for our neighborhood, and this is in Mr. Phillips’ district, if he is not listening to what everybody has agreed to and not listening to what the voters want, then there’s only one thing we can do,” Cornelius said referring to the upcoming fall elections.