LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With two stores already under construction on the Northshore, Dollar General is in the process of exploring three additional retail locations in Lake County.
Dollar General Corp., a “small box” retailer based in Goodlettsville, Tenn., is building its first stores in Lake County in Clearlake Oaks and Nice, as Lake County News has reported.
Kevin Ingram, principal planner with Lake County Community Development, said county officials met with Cross Construction – which is representing Dollar General on its local store projects – to discuss the three new sites.
Specifically, for one project in Kelseyville Dollar General is considering two sites, 5505 Main St. and 4315 Douglas St.; in Middletown, 20900 S. State Highway 29; and in Loch Lomond, 12395 State Highway 175.
“They're not actually applying for anything at this point,” but exploring the feasibility and possible issues with each site, Ingram said.
Regarding its consideration of the Kelseyville, Loch Lomond and Middletown sites, Mary Kathryn Patterson, a Dollar General communications coordinator, told Lake County News, “We are still in the due diligence phase.”
That means gathering the necessary paperwork and researching the sites, Patterson said.
Looking at the sites, she added, doesn't necessarily mean that Dollar General is committed to building at those specific locations.
The Lake County Community Development Department will host a preapplication development meeting to discuss the three Dollar General proposals at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, in conference room C on the third floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Ingram said the meeting is open to the public. It's an opportunity to get input from agencies and stakeholders on the projects as they're currently envisioned, take up concerns and give the developer an idea of what will be required to move forward.
He said the proposals are for buildings that will be identical to those going up on the Northshore. Those metal, prefabricated structures are 9,100 square foot in size, measuring 130 feet wide by 70 feet deep.
“These are formula stores,” said Ingram.
Ingram said it was his understanding that Dollar General was going to wait until its first two stores were open before moving on additional locations. However, he suggested the corporation may be moving forward on the new proposals sooner because California's development process takes more time.
Patterson said that the Nice store is set to be open in February, with the Clearlake Oaks store to open in the late spring of 2015.
Both stores were approved by the Lake County Planning Commission in May, and the Nice store survived an appeal to the Board of Supervisors by several local store owners who said it would harm their businesses.
Patterson said each of the stores typically has six to 10 employees, which includes a full-time store manager and part-time cashiers.
Ingram pointed out that Dollar General is increasingly popping up in locations around Northern California that are geographically isolated and tend not to have Walmarts.
“Lake County seems to fit the bill,” he said.
Dollar General, which has an estimated 11,000 stores nationwide, has been making a push into the California market since 2012. The company reported that it planned to open 700 new stores in California this year alone.
The new locations currently under consideration may require general plan amendments and rezones, Ingram said.
While Dollar General isn't desirable to some community members, Ingram said there aren't other retailers or large commercial products currently seeking to come into Lake County.
“These are important community decisions,” he added.
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Dollar General exploring more Lake County store locations
- Elizabeth Larson
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