Plum approves Dollar General development, housing subdivision on Saltsburg Road
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Plum Council has given its final approval for the construction of a new Dollar General store and approved a subdivision that could lead to the construction of three new houses, all along Saltsburg Road.
At its meeting Wednesday , council unanimously approved without further discussion the land development plan for a Dollar General on Saltsburg Road at Clements Road.
The development has been met with intense opposition from residents of the area, who have voiced concerns about traffic and lighting and its impact on property values. Some have said that the two Dollar General stores already in Plum, on Unity-Center Road and Route 286, are enough.
When council previously approved a conditional use application and subdivision for the store, its members said they had no choice but to do so because it met all requirements and opposing it would lead to a costly and ultimately futile legal battle.
Conditions of the approval include the borough approving the building’s appearance on all four sides and the final location of a fire hydrant.
The property, part of a horse farm, is zoned for neighborhood commercial.
A representative of Dollar General said the company is still in a due diligence phase to add a new store in the borough.
“We believe the addition of each new store provides positive economic benefits,” the spokesperson said, by offeringaffordable products, creating jobs, generating tax revenue and providing literacy and education grants through the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
Meli subdivision
In a separate vote, council unanimously approved a request from Meli Properties to subdivide a vacant lot on Saltsburg Road at Willow Village Drive into three lots for homes.
The lot, now used for storage, is just under 1 acre. The three new lots are 0.39 acre, 0.23 acre and 0.32 acre.
The land is zoned single-family residential and neighborhood mixed commercial. The borough had approved construction of a commercial strip shopping center on the land in 2017, but it was never built and that approval expired.