A Dollar General store proposed at Highway 145 and Road N got yet another thumbs-down from Montezuma County on Tuesday.
At the end of a public hearing which had been continued from June 26, the county commissioners voted 2 to 1 to reject a high-impact permit for the store.
Citing concerns about traffic hazards, fire safety, and maintaining the county’s rural character, commissioners Gerald Koppenhafer and Kent Lindsay voted to deny the permit, Chairman Jim Candelaria to grant it. That was the same way the three voted a year ago, on April 30, 2024, when they first denied the permit
Before that, the county Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended rejecting the permit.
At all the hearings, the vast majority of public comments were opposed to the store. County Sheriff Steve Nowlin was among those who voiced concerns about it, saying it would increase traffic and the risk of vehicle crashes during rush hours and when school buses are running.
Many people said the presence of a Dollar General store would degrade property values on neighboring properties.
However, the Georgia-based corporation that owns Dollar General, Leaf Properties, sued after the commissioners’ first 'no' vote, and 22nd Judicial District Judge Todd Plewe remanded the matter to the commissioners, saying they made procedural mistakes such as not issuing a written decision.
On June 26, the board accepted more evidence from developer Douglas Kinsey and took additional public comments. They then continued the hearing so they could consider the new material.
At the end of Tuesday’s continued hearing, Lindsay said that because he had made the original motion to deny the high-impact permit, he had written “half of a novel” explaining his concerns so that they could indeed be in writing.
He said the intersection at N and 145 is already problematic and adding customer traffic and semi trucks to the turn would increase the risk of more crashes.
“The intersection at N and 145 was rebuilt a number of years ago because of the number of accidents along that section of highway,” Lindsay said, “and traffic has been increasing ever since.”
The intersection should be rebuilt and widened, he said, but “that’s probably not going to happen because of the money situation in the state of Colorado.”
He continued, “Now, with the addition of a commercial retail chain store, we will add more traffic to an already heavily trafficked state highway. . . . This will not only add private vehicles of customers and staff but also box and semi truck traffic in and out of that commercial business.”
All that will increase the possibility of crashes at the intersection, he said, noting that about four days after their 2024 rejection of the store, there was a bad crash on 145.
Lindsay also said the Cortez fire chief had expressed concerns about water availability for fighting fires in the dryland area.
Kinsey has since said he would put a 10,000-gallon water tank in near the store. However, Lindsay, who has worked as a volunteer firefighter and an EMT, said Tuesday he is still concerned about the response time involved in reaching the site, which is halfway between the Cortez and Dolores fire districts.
“If you don’t have a fire truck there or something to pump that water, that water stays in the ground,” Lindsay said.
He also said the store would not fit with the area’s rural character.
“One of the over-arching themes of our county land-use plan is to maintain the rural character while allowing future development that fits the area,” Lindsay said. “A commercial retail chain box store does not align with the community’s desire to maintain the beauty and rural character of the area formerly known as Lakeview 2.
“It also does not add to the highway beauty, which is designated as the San Juan Scenic Byway.”
Developer Kinsey argued that, because the 3.78-acre parcel he bought at N and 145 is zoned commercial and is in a commercial-overlay district, he has a “vested right and entitled right” to build the Dollar General store.
He also said the fire marshal is no longer opposed to the project and the Colorado Department of Transportation does not oppose it either.
“One of the first things we did was go to CDOT,” Kinsey said. “The No. 1 thing they looked at was public safety. The No. 1 reason you used to turn it down was public safety. . . .
“We think we’ve addressed the public safety and property value issues,” Kinsey said.
He expressed a willingness to build the store in an attractive way with a Southwestern design that would not detract from the area.
But Koppenhafer said, “To me there’s no way you’re going to put this store there without adverse impacts to other people. . . . I think we have to decide whether it’s acceptable or not because it’s going to affect a lot of people.”
The 2-1 vote was greeted with enthusiastic applause and cheers from the audience.
