Planners OK protested shopping center

Valerie Miller

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

Black Mountain residents are close to losing their four-year battle to stop a commercial development after the Henderson Planning Commission Thursday approved plans for a shopping center.

The commission voted 3-1 in favor of the proposed College Square shopping center, which would be on the northwest corner of College and Horizon drives, in spite of about 30 residents who turned out to protest the center.

Neighbors in surrounding areas voiced concerns over what having a major shopping center, which would include gaming and packaged liquor sales, would do to their community. Their only hope now is that the City Council overrules the Planning Commission.

"There is a school and two churches here, and this is not the area for liquor sales," resident Margaret Shaffer said. "This is a family area."

The 10-acre development by World Premier Investments Inc. would have seven lots and a 60,714-square-foot supermarket with a mezzanine.

This is not the first time residents of the area have battled commercial development on the site. The Planning Commission had previously denied a zone change for a similar project, the Mission Plaza, at the same location.

"We started with this four years ago," Georgie DeBerry said. "We were told by the developer and their lawyer that if the residents opposed this, they would go away, but here we are."

DeBerry and others strongly opposed the change from residential to commercial zoning on the site, which took place as a result of the city's 1996 Comprehensive Plan.

"If people want to buy liquor and gamble, they can go to Boulder Highway to do it," she added. "This was a residential neighborhood when we moved here, and I don't think that the children should be subjected to alcohol sales and gambling on their way to school."

There are no schools within 1,500 feet of the proposed shopping center, which is the minimum travel distance from a church or school allowed by city ordinance, but there are two churches close to the site.

As a result, World Premier Investments had asked for a waiver for the vehicle travel distance along with a use permit. The company selling the property, Terra West Development, had also requested an extension of time to begin construction until April 1, 2000.

Residents worry that allowing liquor sales and gaming for the grocery store will bring in crime and other undesirable elements to the community, while increasing traffic congestion.

"The (1,500-foot) ordinance is there for a reason," Janice Herrmann said. "Just because there is a major intersection there doesn't mean that you have to plaster it with a shopping center."

"Some criminals now will go right up and rob the change persons (at retail stores)," resident Bob DeBarry said. "We don't want that kind of a hazard to our children."

The developer, however, maintained residents were upset that any commercial development at all could be on the site.

"The history of this parcel and the fact that neighbors want it to convert back to residential is not relevant because that is not at issue tonight," said John Marchiano, representing World Premier Investments.

While planners tried to put in safeguards for residents, they felt that development on the site had been postponed long enough.