BLOOMINGDALE — Town of St. Armand residents commented on a plan to build a Dollar General in town at a meeting Thursday. Some welcomed it, neighbors were concerned about certain design elements, and some questioned if the store will be successful.

The property where the store is planned is at 1790 state Route 3, east of River Road and Union Street.

Caryn Mlodzianowski, project manager for Bohler Engineering, the firm designing the building, attended the town board meeting. She was representing Primax Properties, the developer. Either Primax or the land’s current owner, William Latham, will lease the property to Dollar General.

St. Armand does not have any zoning code, so the town does not regulate building projects except to check for compliance with state building and fire codes. Mlodzianowski said the state Department of Transportation and Adirondack Park Agency have both reviewed the building plans for access and environmental impact, respectively.

APA spokesperson Keith McKeever said the agency determined it does not have jurisdiction over the project since the land is classified as “hamlet,” meaning an already developed area where the agency is most lenient. Town Supervisor Davina Winemiller said the project has been issued a building permit.

The town does not usually hold public hearings on projects, but Mlodzianowski’s visit to the meeting Tuesday served as a sort of public hearing, where residents asked questions, voiced worries or said they were happy to have a new store in town.

There are currently no general stores in Bloomingdale, and few in the other communities outside Saranac Lake. Several locally owned businesses in the area have closed in the past decade, including two general stores in Bloomingdale, one in Vermontville and most recently one in Gabriels.

Dollar General has opened several stores in the Adirondacks in recent years. One is slated to be built in the nearby town of Wilmington, where residents recently voiced concern with the corporation’s business strategy and worried the chain would put local general stores out of business and degrade the town’s image.

But in St. Armand, most of the questions and concerns came from residents of neighboring properties, across the street and next door, and were focused on the impact the store would have on their homes directly.

Loweyl Willette, who lives next door, brought a “list” of questions.

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The building

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Mlodzianowski shared diagrams and blueprints of the proposed building, a 9,100-square-foot structure with 31 parking spaces sitting on a 11.8-acre parcel of land.

The lower portion of the building will be brick, dark on the bottom and light around the middle, with a metal top. The metal color will be “wood brown,” she said.

Willette was surprised the APA did not require it to be “Adirondack green.”

Mlodzianowski said the designs are comparable to the Dollar General in Chazy.

Willette said a Family Dollar store in Lake Placid was built in the “Adirondack style,” which he liked and asked if Dollar General could do that, instead of the “regular box store” with a flat roof.

“Dollar General, Family Dollar, they’re all the same,” Willette said. “A store like Dollar General is welcome here, I’m sure. But we don’t want to be like a community that has Walmart stores going up, you know, the box stores.”

He said the Adirondack style would make the store’s neighbors “much happier.”

Mlodzianowski said the building plans for a structure in the typical Dollar General flat-roof style have already been approved, so the company would be unlikely to redo them.

She said there will be two dark-sky-compliant LED lights in the parking lot. They will be shut off one hour after the store closes and turn on one hour before it opens. A study on where the light will land was conducted.

“The light levels will not leave the property,” Mlodzianowski said. “It’s just intended to light the parking lot.”

She said the lights will face downward and have blinders to keep them from leaking to the sides. They will produce ambient light, she said, but direct light should not spill over off the property.

“If I can see them from my property, I can probably shoot them out with a .22 or something,” Willette said with a laugh.

A 6-foot-tall wooden privacy fence is planned between the store and Willette’s property to the east. Mlodzianowski told Willette the fence would be “natural wood.”

A sign set back 20 to 25 feet from the road will be lit at the same times as the parking lot lights.

Mlodzianowski said some trees will be removed from the property, but most of the property is to remain forested.

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Concerns

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Cheri Fisher, who lives across Route 3 from the project site, was concerned about where the entrance to the parking lot would be, since her living room and bedroom windows face across the street, toward the entrance. She said Latham’s vehicle lights shine in her windows when he leaves now and she would not want car lights shining into her windows every time someone finishes shopping.

After a bit of searching around on maps, Mlodzianowski determined the entrance will be a bit west of where the driveway to the property is today.

Winemiller said this was “probably about as good as it can possibly get on that parcel.”

Joe Fisher, Cheri’s husband, said he would like to see an artist’s rendering of the building proposal.

“Just to be fair, Caryn, you’re talking to people who live right across the street,” Joe said. “We’re more concerned about what it’s going to be when we look out our front window, if you get what we’re getting after.”

Mlodzianowski told the Fishers the store’s hours would match the hours of other stores in the area — generally 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Willette asked when delivery vehicles will arrive. He was concerned they would come at night and trucks would be running outside of his house late. Mlodzianowski said that schedule is uncertain right now. She said employees would have to be at the store when deliveries arrive, so she believed it would be during store hours.

But Willette said it could be after closing, too.

Willette asked what will happen if the store does not turn a profit.

Mlodzianowski said Primax has never had a store close that she knows of. She said they typically sign 15-year lease agreements with renewals.

“What happens if Dollar General fails?” Willette asked.

He was concerned that if the store is not successful, it would be abandoned. He said big companies are folding all the time, pointing to the Sears chain.

“It can happen,” he said. “It happens every day.”

Mlodzianowski said Primax’s stores have “thrived” over the years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Would you please check on it with your powers that be?” Willette asked.

Mlodzianowski said she would.

Willette questioned if the building was far enough away from property lines.

The building will sit 225 feet from the road, 78 feet from the western property line and 17 feet from the eastern property line, near his home.

Willette’s deed said buildings must be set back at least 50 feet from all property lines. He believes the store parcel’s deed says the same, since his is identical to deeds for several properties along that road.

Town administrators were not sure.

Winemiller said she was speaking with Essex County Attorney Dan Manning and Primax’s attorney Wednesday to figure out the facts. She said it would be unlikely the developers and their attorney overlooked such a restriction, but it is possible.

St. Armand Code Enforcement Officer Derrick Martineau said deed restrictions are not enforceable by the town or APA. It was unclear who would enforce them if there is a violation.

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Compliments

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Some residents were excited for Dollar General to open up a shop here.

“I think Dollar General is an asset to our community,” said Judy O’Dell, who lives in St. Armand near Saranac Lake. “I can’t give them enough kudos for what they did during the pandemic, on keeping Saranac Lake alive with all the cleaning supplies that we needed. It was wonderful.”

“Yay, yay,” Warrene McCarthy said. “Can’t wait for you to come.”