CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission unanimously approved a building permit for a Dollar General store on Coal River Road in Tornado, despite opposition from community residents and the commission itself.
The company applied to build a 9,100-square-foot store in the 8600 block of Coal River Road, but residents opposed the decision because of how the business could affect traffic and property values, as well as how the store’s parking lot could serve as a hot spot for drug trafficking and crime.
“We didn’t buy into that part of West Virginia,” homeowner Chad Fallecker said. “We bought into moving out of town and having a little space around our house.”
Fallacker’s house is located directly across the proposed store location.
“We’re selling. I’m absolutely selling my house,” he said.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper told around 30 Tornado residents he takes responsibility for the project moving forward. He said he reached out to multiple state agencies, as well as the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, to see if there were reasons for the building permit to be blocked.
“When you don’t have the facts and you don’t have the law, you have to make a decision even if you don’t like it,” he said.
Carper added the county was also limited because of current ordinances, which the commission will look at changing.
“Even if we had a tighter ordinance, I don’t think you can prevent this,” he said. “You can prevent things like maybe a junkyard that would be open 24 hours a day or a stamping plant or other things that would just destroy the values of a community.”
Fallecker said he will be looking for a new community far away from the store.
“I don’t want people parked in a parking lot at two in the morning scoping out my house for when I leave for work so they can check the back door and break in,” he said. “That’s probably extreme, but right now I feel comfortable and safe in my home.”
The commission also voted to oppose Senate Bill 352, which would create a county home rule pilot program in the state.