Daniel Del Caro remembers seeing a Dollar General store in nearly every pocket of the South, where he lived for 20 years before moving to New England.
When he heard that one was being proposed near Warner’s Exit 9, he said it didn’t add up.
“They’re just a large corporate venture setting up their shops wherever they can get some real estate and then selling their trinkets,” he said. “They don’t bring anything to a community, and both my wife and I often discussed how fortunate we were not to have those kinds of things in our New England environment.”
Many Warner residents like him have shared similar concerns, citing construction and traffic woes, as well as fears that the store would hurt the town’s character. Even so, the planning board approved the project’s site plan on Sept. 14.
Comet LLC brought the plan before the board on July 6, after a previous application was only partially approved. The company is eyeing a site that sits close to the roundabout off Exit 9, adjacent to the Dunkin’, which the company also owns.
Comet LLC also owns the site of the CATCH Neighborhood Housing project, which proposes to build a 34-unit workforce housing complex. That application is still being reviewed by the planning board.
Representatives at Comet LLC did not respond to requests for comment. A representative of the Ranger Engineering Group, the firm behind the project, declined to comment and referred requests back to Comet LLC.
There are over 20,000 Dollar General locations in the lower 48 states, a majority of which are in the eastern region of the U.S., according to the data platform ScrapeHero. There are currently 51 stores in New Hampshire, a number that’s grown rapidly since 2011.
Dollar General opened a store in Henniker in 2016 and in Boscawen in 2019.
Laura Colburn responded to news of the proposed development by drafting a letter of concern that received 54 signatures from her neighbors.
She states that Dollar General and any other similar chain store “would be inconsistent with the character and appearance of our town. A generic commercial building and its associated signage, parking, lighting, and traffic would create a visual impact that could detract from the historic and welcoming atmosphere that residents and visitors value.”
She presented the letter to the planning board on Sept. 14. It resonated with other dissenters in the room, including Janet Garcia.
“There’s no need for that store in this town,” Garcia said during the meeting. “Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it has to be done. It’s that simple.”
Colburn presented a second letter that detailed specific logistical concerns, such as parking, pedestrian and bicycle accommodations and application issues. The planning board addressed each point and assured residents that the application met all requirements.
Board member James Gaffney said Warner’s zoning ordinances do not allow the board to consider one applicant over the other. The application is for a retail space in a site where retail is a permitted use, he said.
“If the town starts trying to discriminate against one retailer or another, we’re gonna land in court very, very quickly and face a very, very large legal bill,” Gaffney said.
In the area where the Dollar General site would be, there already exists a McDonald’s, gas stations, a Market Basket and a liquor store. Board member John Leavitt said he would understand the pushback if the store was proposed for Warner’s Main Street.
“This town is a welcoming town, as we try to keep a retail store out of town, so I guess it’s not so welcoming,” he said in the meeting.
Resident Sara McNeil said she was a part of the effort to keep McDonald’s out of Warner, but admitted that if the applicants meet all the requirements, there was not much the townspeople could do. What most concerns her now are the empty storefronts along Main Street.
“I am with the majority who do not want it in town, however I have lived here for many years. If they check all the boxes … then we can’t really keep them out,” she said in an interview. “The only thing we can do is just not shop there.”
Now that the site plan is approved, the applicant has 65 days to act on it. Del Caro said he doesn’t know if residents can give any more input on the project but that a group of residents could seek to amend zoning ordinances to restrict future developments of this kind and other controversial projects, like data centers.
Such language can be pitched in a citizens petition that would require 25 or more residents to sign on to alter the existing ordinance.
“But what we have come to conclusion about is, as citizens of this town, we have to be more in tune, better aware of what our select board [is doing],” he said.
