Dollar General wants to bring a store to the east side of Main Street (State Road 9) between County Roads 500N and 550N in Maxwell.
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MAXWELL — Hancock County planning authorities don’t think a discount store proposed for Maxwell would be a good deal.
Dollar General wants to add a 10,640-square-foot location on the east side of Main Street (State Road 9) between County Roads 500N and 550N in the unincorporated community. First, the county would need to rezone the currently undeveloped land from a residential designation to a commercial one. The Hancock County Area Plan Commission recommends that the Hancock County Board of Commissioners rejects the request.
Although the county planning department supports the rezone, the plan commission voted 5-1 to send the request to the commissioners with an unfavorable recommendation. Plan commission members Bill Bolander, Wendell Hester, Michael Long, Renee Oldham and Bill Spalding voted in favor of the unfavorable recommendation while Byron Holden voted against. A seventh plan commission member has yet to be appointed.
Spalding, also a county commissioner, questioned the need for a Dollar General in the area and noted the small community already has a Mom & Pop’s convenience store.
“Walmart is maybe two, three miles down the road,” Spalding added, referring to the Greenfield location to the south. “It’s not really a food desert.”
Holden, the proposal’s sole supporter on the plan commission, said he thinks a Dollar General would fit in in the area. He added the rezone wouldn’t constitute “spot zoning,” noting the commercial uses in operation across the street from the site.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with the project itself,” he said. “It seemed to fit a need.”
Carmel-based Second Circle Acquisitions would be the developer on the project. The firm recently finished building a Dollar General on Main Street on Greenfield’s east side, the city’s third Dollar General and second on Main Street. The developer has built other Dollar General locations throughout central Indiana as well.
Joe Leonard of Second Circle Acquisitions said Dollar General approaches him about wanting to be in a particular area, prompting him to look for a property that would work within that area.
A search on Google Maps for Dollar General locations near Maxwell turns up 20 results.
That abundance is part of the company’s strategy, said Michael Thompson of Fishers-based Hamilton Designs, serving as Second Circle Acquisition’s civil engineer on the project. A Dollar General typically isn’t a destination, he continued, adding most of the company’s shoppers stop by on their way somewhere else.
“So in that case, they have to put more of them in so that it’s convenient to be on your way home,” Thompson said.
Debra Elsbury, owner of Mom & Pop’s in Maxwell, said a Dollar General in the community would devastate her business. She also lives in the area, she added, for the seclusion its rural atmosphere provides.
“I don’t want the amenities close to me,” Elsbury said. “I knew when I lived there 30-some years ago that I was going to drive to Greenfield to get my groceries, I was going to drive to Indianapolis if I wanted to go to a steakhouse and have dinner. And I was fine with that, and that’s the choice that I make.”
Her nephew, lawyer Steve Elsbury, happened to be at the plan commission meeting as well, representing residents who live in the Twin Oaks neighborhood near Maxwell. He said he doesn’t think the proposal aligns with the county’s comprehensive plan and expressed concerns about the many other uses available to the property under a new commercial designation were Dollar General to cease operations there in the future.
Kyle Turpin used to live near the Dollar General that Second Circle Acquisitions recently developed in Greenfield and thinks it’s in a good location, noting its proximity to a gas station and apartments.
“It made sense,” Turpin said.
However, he doesn’t think it makes sense for the Maxwell area, where he now lives and prefers having Mom & Pop’s.
“I could still get that convenience without having to go to Walmart or Kroger and also be able to support a local family that’s been in the community for decades,” Turpin said.
The date the commissioners will consider the rezone has yet to be determined. The commissioners post their meeting agendas on the county’s website, hancockcoingov.org, under the “Commissioners Meetings & Minutes” tab.
