Developers who want to build a large box store in the center of Signal Mountain got a chilly reception Thursday evening from some members of the town's planning commission -- particularly when they declined to identify any of the national retail chains they say are interested in moving into the space.
"This brings out the commercial skeptic in me," Van Bunch said frankly. "I don't see any evidence, any documents, from (retail chains) that want to build a grocery store up here . . .
It's all just air to me."
Further, he and other critics said, the area where the developers want to build -- behind the old CVS property, directly across the street from Pruetts Grocery store -- already contains a significant amount of retail space that is sitting empty.
In the end, planning commission members decided to postpone making a decision on the request until their regular meeting in December.
Thursday's discussion grew out of Lookout Mountain Investment Company's request that 8.5 acres of low density residential property be rezoned Highway Commercial District, to make way for its proposed retail development.
The presentation was made by Lookout Mountain Development President Frank Powell, a resident of Signal Mountain, and developer Gary Greve.
Mr. Greve said he realizes that extending commercial zoning 500 feet into a residential neighborhood will have a negative effect on the people who live there.
But the overall community would benefit, he argued, by having a centralized commercial district. "That would prevent what I call the 'Brainerd Road-ization' of Signal Mountain," he told planning commission members.
He urged planning commission members not to put any restrictions on the rezoning, such as specifying that the occupant of the box store has to be a grocery store.
Otherwise, he said, funding will be extremely difficult to obtain.
He also indicated that there are a number of scenarios regarding what business would go into the box store, including the possibility that Pruetts would leave its present location and move into the new property.
That would be truly exciting, he said, because it would open up the possibility of razing the building that Pruetts currently occupies and creating a large new retail development on that property -- another major step toward the town center he envisions.
But some residents said that whole concept is flawed.
"A grocery store isn't the town center," one man protested vehemently. "(City Hall) is the town center."