Dover residents concerned about possible Aldi store location

Dover residents who live on Jessica Drive and Northwood Drive filled council chambers at the city council meeting on Nov. 6 over the possibility that an Aldi store could be added to the neighborhood.

Leading off comments during the audience participation portion of the meeting was Gloria Miller, a resident of Jessica Drive. Miller spoke not just for herself, but also for other residents of the area.

She said a letter was sent to seven residences on Jessica Drive to inform them that Dover First Christian Church, located at 3029 N. Wooster Ave., had sold their extra land to Aldi and construction would begin in 2024. A meeting with an Aldi representative was scheduled at the church prior to the council meeting.

The property is currently zoned residential, and that designation would have to be changed before a store could be built.

In addition to preserving the residential character of the neighborhood, the residents had other concerns.

“We are concerned about the traffic patterns and the traffic lights. That part of Wooster Avenue is very busy at times, and we have safety concerns,” Miller said, noting neighbors have a hard time getting in and out of their streets already due to the large amount of traffic at certain times of the day.

After North Wooster Avenue passes Jessica Drive, it goes from two lanes to one.

“We have seen a lot of near misses,” Miller said.

The proposed store would reduce property values and cause financial loss to residents.

“All this will literally be in our backyard,” Miller said.

Noise and air pollution also are of concern.

“There will be traffic that comes in and out of there,” Miller said, adding not only traffic from customers would be added, but also semi-trucks making deliveries and trash trucks.

The residents want to know what they can do to help retain the neighborhood they have.

“We would like to be fully informed of our rights. I mean this is new to us. We are just residents of Dover. We're asking for city council's involvement to help us as the residents of Dover,” Miller said.

The residents are not against an Aldi store moving into the city but would like to see it in a different location. Another resident doesn’t want to see the city open the door to putting commercial property between two neighborhoods.

“Both Northwood and Jessica are very nice, quiet residential areas. We have a variety of people who live there. We have young families; we have some retirees. We have a lot of people who are working for the good of our city. We have teachers; we have social workers. We have policemen; we have firemen. We have a lot of people who are here and have been here many years and have worked for the good of this city,” said another resident of Jessica Drive, Sue Hartz, who asked the rights of the people living in the neighborhood be considered.

Hartz said both the church and Aldi have alternatives, but if the property is rezoned for business, then the residents do not have an alternative. Their property values will drop, and they won’t get as much for their homes should they sell.

“Housing prices are sky high right now. We could not move somewhere else,” Hartz said. “I have a three bedroom, two bath, full basement, attached garage home. I bought it in 1991. I couldn't afford to buy someplace else in Dover in 2023 or '24.”

Mayor Shane Gunnoe said the residents’ question about their rights was an important one, and he explained the process to have property rezoned. He said the city has not received any requests relating to the possible store.

“If you were to rezone currently zoned residential property, it is a multi-step process, of which the neighbors would certainly be informed,” Gunnoe said. “The first step would be the developer or whoever owns the land would actually have to request rezoning. In this case that parcel is zoned residential today. If they were to request a zone change from residential to commercial, that would require it to go to the planning commission, of which there would be a public hearing.”

Anyone living within 200 feet would be notified of the hearing, and the meeting is open to the public.

The planning commission would take any concerns expressed at the meeting into consideration. If the planning commission were to recommend a change, then it would go to city council, where it would go to the planning and zoning codes committee. Another public hearing would be held, and council would vote on it.

“You absolutely will have a right, if that request is made, to provide your feedback. I think a number of the concerns that you expressed tonight are some of the same things that we talked about amongst ourselves when we first heard about it just recently. But there is a process to that, and everybody's input would absolutely be heard through that entire process,” Gunnoe said.

The date of the annual Christmas Parade will be Dec. 2. It will begin at 4:45 p.m. from Crater Stadium. Visit the City of Dover Facebook page for information on parade registration and guidelines.

In other action council approved Emergency Resolution 24-23, which authorizes the mayor or his designee to enter into a contract for the purchase of two parcels of real estate at a cost of $35,000 each. The parcels will add about 7-8 acres to the east end of the Canal Dover Park, which could be used to extend the towpath trail into the city.

The next Dover Council meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 20 in council chambers, 121 E. Second St., Dover.