Bishop residents oppose plans for Dollar General store

There is a petition drive in Oconee County, where people in Bishop are looking to reverse a City Council decision that would allow a developer to build a Dollar General store just north of town. The builder is looking to rebuild on the Macon Highway site of a convenience store that burned several months ago. The petition signers say they are worried about noise, traffic, and crime.

Following is the petition, as seen on www.change.org...

At the April 12, 2021 Bishop City Council meeting a vote was taken to allow annexation and approval of a Dollar General at the corner of Union Church/186 and 441 near the site of the Golden Pantry which recently burned and is in process of being restored.

A Dollar General at this location will have great impacts on immediately connected residences, neighborhoods and roadways as well as outlying residences, neighborhoods and roadways. There have been numerous studies about the impact of Dollar General in other communities regarding traffic, violent crime, property damage etc and as citizens we  request the opportunity to have our concerns heard and addressed. Bishop City Council voted on the annexation and approval with very little notice or input from citizens. We want our concerns heard and demand input into the decision to allow Dollar General in Bishop.

The 441 corridor through Bishop is already terribly congested during peak hours am/pm and adding another retail outlet at this location will most definitely complicate matters further. Also, residences of TownSide will now have a retail establishment with high traffic, noise, garbage, loitering and ingress/egress in their backyard and within walking distance of their residence. Normal through traffic will now have cause to stop and linger in our small community that wouldn’t have before.

Please sign our petition to allow the citizens of Bishop to have a say in what types of businesses reside in our small community and give us the opportunity to keep our community safe through careful planning and development. This shouldn’t be the decision of a select number of Council members. This is a community decision.

Cox Media Group