Dollar General seeks a special exception

The retail chain Dollar General wants to build a store at the rural Oconee intersection of Ebenezer and Keowee School roads, and a request to make a special zoning exception will be aired tonight at Pine Street.  Frances McMahan Blakely is one neighbor who would welcome Dollar General to her community as an asset.  But her opinion is not shared by other nearby residents who’ve communicated with the office of the Oconee Board of Zoning Appeals.  One of them said, “Not in my neighborhood.  What has been a residential neighborhood is going to change into a commercial.  Now everyone will try to sell their homes.”  Greenville attorney H-Mills Gallivan who, with his wife, owns a home on Long Bay Road, says a Dollar General would be out of character with the neighborhood which, he says, is primarily developed for single-family homes.  A public to hearing to consider a special exception to allow the store takes place at 6 tonight in County Council Chambers at Walhalla.