Buckingham planners denied a request for a zoning map amendment to construct a Dollar General Store at U.S. 15 and Penlan Road on Monday, citing concerns with the location.

The 5-1-1 vote came during the Buckingham County Planning Commission’s meeting Monday, after three people spoke in opposition to the request during a public hearing on the matter, noting safety and traffic concerns. Board of Supervisors’ representative and District Seven Supervisor Danny Allen accidentally voted in opposition of the motion to deny the request, while District Four representative J. Dabney Crews Sr. abstained.

The action serves as a recommendation to the county’s board of supervisors, which could accept or reject it.

“If I lived there, I wouldn’t want it there,” said District Five representative Sammy Smith, who offered the motion. “From a traffic point of view … I think there’s a better way to do it … I think that’s the wrong spot.”

“Why put it right up on top of somebody?” Allen said. “You got a man right here beside you that you’re right up against the side of his house. You’re right in front of this house here with children.”

Allen said he felt like the location needed to be reconsidered by Par 5 Development Group LLC, of Aberdeen, N.C., the firm that requested the permit.

The new store in Arvonia could employ as many as 13 people on a part-time basis or possibly eight on a full-time basis.

Par 5 proposed to operate an approximately 9,100-square-foot store on the southwest corner of Penlan Road (Route 671) and North James Madison Highway (U.S. 15). The entrance and exit to the proposed store would be on Penlan Road.

Allen told Lance Koth, of Koth Consulting, who acted as the applicant during the meeting, that he felt the developers needed to reconsider the location, because he felt it was “too close.”

“I think we need their business, personally,” said District Three representative Pat Bowe. “I don’t want to run them out of the county.”

John McWilliams, who lives on U.S. 15 and owns property that adjoins the site in question, advocated for the store.

“As with anything, it’s not a perfect world,” he said. “There’s always tradeoffs, but I do know when I go to Fork Union or whatever city, every time I walk in there, everybody else in the store, including me, is from Buckingham.”

He said it is important for the county to “maintain a tax base.”

Valerie Van Witzenberg, however, asked, “Why do we need a Dollar General every 10 miles down Route 15?”

Van Witzenberg, who lives across from Penlan Road on U.S. 15, said she was concerned about traffic turning off of the highway onto Penlan Road, in addition to noise and loitering.

“Our mailbox has been blown out of the ground several times a year. Sometimes, might be every other year,” she said. “But, it depends on what’s going on.”

Stephanie Wood, who lives on Penlan Road, said if she took “two steps off my front porch, I’ll be in the property of Dollar General.”

She questioned the need for the store and said she was “very worried” about her children.

“It’s not fair … Why right there? It is the most awkward spot possible,” Wood said.

“I’ve lived there all my life,” said Franklin Wood. “And I never in the world would ever thought, with that little neighborhood right there, that I’d ever be living beside a business.”

Responding to the speakers’ concerns, Koth said when Par 5 identifies a new site, “it’s not a parcel that’s identified. It’s an area. And it’s a fairly targeted area when they identify a parcel that’s for sale. This site is probably an above-average site as far as that goes and has good visibility. And I realize that there are accidents. I don’t know that they’re worse here than anywhere else. Again, it’s something we hear a lot anywhere we go.”

He said landscaping would be installed around the store.

According to a report from Koth Consulting, the business could bring in up to $3,982.50 in annual revenue for the county in the form of personal property, real estate and merchant’s capital taxes.

According to county documents, France W. Ellis owns the property. If approved by supervisors, the zone would be changed from agriculture to business.