Tribune-Star Editorial: Citizens stated case better than Dollar General did, and won

Residents of Prairieton did a lot of things right in their successful challenge to a proposed Dollar General store locating in the small town in southwestern Vigo County.

On Tuesday, Vigo County commissioners unanimously rejected a rezoning request that would have allowed the company to place a store south of Prairieton United Methodist Church.

Commissioner Chris Switzer pointed out the effective steps followed by Prairietonians, which led to the commissioners' decision.

One was clarity. Opponents of the Dollar General unequivocally stated that residents "really want to be a rural community without too much commercial business," Switzer said.

The residents' other impactful tactic was to present a well-organized opposition. They assembled in October, once word spread that Dollar General had acquired 2.3 acres of land near the church. A spokesperson emerged for the group, Cindy Morgan, who grew up in Prairieton and serves on the church's board of trustees. They adopted a catchy slogan: "Keep the Prairie in Prairieton." And, the residents group did their homework.

They presented commissioners with their objections, including the proposed store's possible negative impact on property values and the residential neighborhood's quality of life, the possible sale of alcohol close to the church, traffic impact, the cleanliness and maintenance of the store property, and the pervasiveness of the corporate retailer in the area. A pair of Dollar Generals are located near Prairieton — 5.8 miles away on U.S. 41 and 3.7 miles away on Indiana 63.

Numerous residents of Prairieton and adjacent townships phoned and emailed commissioners, and built a petition.

"We were concerned that it didn't fit quite in with our community plan," an ecstatic Morgan told Tribune-Star reporter Sue Loughlin. "We were afraid it would interfere with allowing families to come in, and using that land for families, homes and residential."

Perhaps the most persuasive factor was that Dollar General failed to meet with residents to address their concerns. The project developer sent a representative and a local attorney, admirably, but no representative of the nationwide discount-store corporation came to Prairieton.

The 3-0 vote by the commissioners to reject the rezoning to allow the store to locate surprised Dave Peters, the representative for developer Overland Group, which would have built the store and leased it to Dollar General. But Peters pointed out that residents "were well-organized and brought up some points."

"Keep the Prairie in Prairieton" achieved an herculean effort.

Dollar stores from a trio of primary chains have become ubiquitous in America, and have spread rapidly.

A 2023 study by Purdue University found that more than half of Americans had shopped recently at a dollar store. Dollar General has store locations within five miles of an estimated 75% of the United States population, according to early 2024 comments by company executives and cited by the Washington Post. Trade figures in the Post report state that Dollar General opened 987 new stores across the country in 2023, relocated another 129 and remodeled 2,007 locations. DG's 20,000th store opened in February, and the company planned to open 800 new stores this year, remodel 1,500 existing stores and relocate another 85.

Dollar General foot traffic has increased 5.4% year-over-year, the Post story said.

Folks in Prairieton found a way to buck that trend. In this particular case, those residents successfully conveyed that to their local elected officials. Tuesday was a good day for responsive government.