Columbia area Dollar General opens with temp permit
A new Dollar General store opened last week at the corner of Union Hill and Parrotts Ferry roads, near the so-called Pedro Wye intersection, under a temporary certificate of occupancy issued by the Tuolumne County Community Development Department.
The national discount retailer officially announced the opening of the new store at 11400 Union Hill Road in Sonora through a news release on Monday and said it plans to donate 100 new books to an unspecified nearby elementary school to commemorate the occasion.
“At Dollar General, we believe the addition of each new store provides positive economic growth for the communities we proudly serve,” Dan Nieser, the company’s senior vice president of real estate and store development, said in the release.
However, some in the surrounding community have publicly expressed concern on social media and through letters to the editor about ongoing traffic safety concerns that they fear the addition of customers going to and from the store will exacerbate.
The store occupies the first of three buildings that were approved for development by the county Board of Supervisors in 2017 as a commercial project called the Stone Mill Center.
Residents who live in the area raised concerns about traffic safety, particularly along Parrotts Ferry Road between Highway 49 and Union Hill Road, prior to the project’s approval and were told many of them would be addressed by a
county intersection realignment project.
Many were told that the project, which will eliminate the swing lane from Highway 49 onto northbound Parrotts Ferry Road and replace it with a right turn lane among other improvements, would be completed before the opening of the Stone Mill Center.
The county's intersection project faced multiple delays due to issues with utility line relocation, as well as bids from contractors earlier this year coming back nearly double the estimated construction budget at the time.
Last month, the county Board of Supervisors awarded the $1.8 million contract for the intersection realignment, and construction is expected to begin sometime this month if weather permits. The estimated completion time is about four months.
Vehicles going north on Parrotts Ferry Road are currently blocked from turning left onto Union Hill Road as a result of the realignment project, meaning the only access to Dollar General for people headed that direction is to turn around somewhere north of the store.
Drivers can also turn right onto Shaws Flat Road from Highway 49 and then take the mostly one-lane Union Hill Road lined with rural residential style properties.
Cody Nesper, deputy county counsel, said county staff “put significant time into assessing whether the store could open before the completion of the road project at the Pedro Wye in a way that recognizes the safety concerns at the left turn lane from Parrotts Ferry Road on Union Hill Road.”
Nesper said the development project was not required to wait until after the county's road construction is completed.
“The developer had requested to occupy the building, therefore Community Development Department staff worked with its respective divisions and departments and determined the project could be issued a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy,” he said.
Such a certificate was described by Nesper as “a routine process that is overseen by the Chief
Building Official” that allows for a building to be occupied for a temporary period of time before a final certificate of occupancy is issued.
Nesper further explained that, before such a certificate is issued, the county Building Division gathers input from all other applicable departments on how the building could be safely occupied on a temporary basis and what conditions would be necessary to ensure safety.
“A Temporary Certificate of Occupancy is a common tool that the Community Development Department uses for a variety of projects, and in no way is providing any special treatment to this specific project and does not violate any previous approvals granted by the County,” he said.
The county Public Works staff recommended that the chief building official require safety measures that included “restricting Union Hill from Parrotts Ferry to right-in, right-out only; vegetation removal along Union Hill; restricting the speed limit on Union Hill to 25 mph; and, an in-lieu fee for road repairs to Union Hill should repairs be re
quired after the temporary occupancy.”
“If these temporary traffic measures are not adequate and safety issues persist, the Chief Building Official is authorized to revoke the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy,” Nesper said.
Nesper did not respond as of Monday afternoon to a follow-up question sent via email asking exactly how long the temporary certificate is valid.
Dollar General has long eyed the corridor between Sonora and Columbia State Historic Park for a new store location, first back in 2015 at Howser Lane and Parrotts Ferry Road closer to the park's entrance.
Residents in the Columbia area and beyond
rallied to oppose the proposed location in 2015 primarily because of its location close to the historic area and potential impacts on surrounding locally owned small businesses.
The county Board of Supervisors ultimately decided to overturn the county Planning Commission's approval of the project.
There are now four Dollar General stores operating within Tuolumne County in Jamestown, Soulsbyville, Don Pedro and now the Sonora location, which the company says is anticipated to employ about six to 10 people.