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The Roanoke Rapids Board of Adjustment will hear an appeal submitted by opponents to a Dollar General set for construction at Roanoke Avenue at Eighth Street.

The appeal seeks to overturn a decision by the planning and development department approving site plans for the store. The appeal led to a stop work order being issued by the city.

The board will meet February 21 at 5:30 p.m. in Lloyd Andrews City Meeting Hall, the planning and development confirmed.

The application for appeal was filed January 28 with Mike Askew’s name listed as the applicant.

The document also carries the names of eight individuals and one couple.

The appellants allege the store would cause property values to plummet, more traffic, danger to students going to and from Roanoke Rapids High School and promote alcohol and cigarette sales to high schoolers.

The appellants believe there should be a conditional use permit issued for the store rather than a zoning permit and that the store will injure property values, endanger safety of students and endanger the public health, safety or general welfare in the immediate vicinity.

In addition to Askew, the other appellants are: Wayne Keeter; James Dech III; Sharon Driscoll; Amanda Scanlon; Tony and Betty Martin; Julie Callis; Jamal Summey and Clayton Casey.

The planning and development department, after what Planning and Development Director Kelly Lasky described a thorough examination by the city’s Development Review Committee, approved the site plans last month.

That action meant the use of the property for the retail business and associated land development is in compliance with the city’s land use ordinance.

The committee is made up of the planning department, the fire marshal, public works, Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District, Dominion Energy, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the city’s engineering consultant DM2 Engineering.

Lasky said at the time one of the major concerns the committee had was for pedestrian safety at Eighth Street and Roanoke Avenue and Eighth and Jackson streets.

Final approval of the site plans was conditioned upon placement of high visibility crosswalks at both Eighth Street and Roanoke Avenue and Eighth and Jackson streets.

Upon the time of the meeting the duty of the board of adjustment is to review the facts of the application from both sides in a quasi judicial setting to determine whether the land use administrator made the correct decision, or whether the plans should be modified or reversed.

The board of adjustment takes the place of the land use administrator in these settings and any decision made must be done so by a super majority vote.

Members can’t discuss the matter prior to the hearing and must remain impartial until the hearing. Arguments have to be fact-based to justify whether the correct decision was made and can’t be opinion-based or lay opinion.

The plans for the store didn’t have to go before the planning board or city council because the use is allowed in the B-1 district and only needed administrative review.