After trying twice in the last five years to open a store in Northeast Cobb, the German discount grocery chain Lidl has set its sights on a new location in the area.
Plans filed last month with the Cobb Zoning Office show Lidl is requesting rezoning of 3.47 acres at the southwest intersection of Canton Road and Piedmont Road for a 31,000-square-foot supermarket.
There’s a vacant building there now that formerly housed a Rite Aid pharmacy, which is across from Covenant Presbyterian Church.
The land, which includes an undeveloped parcel behind the former Rite Aid building, is zoned neighborhood shopping (NS) and Lidl is requesting community retail commercial (CRC) designation.
A hearing before the Cobb Planning Commission is scheduled for Dec. 6. The filing is preliminary and does not yet include a staff analysis or recommendation.
The store hours would be from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.
Lidl is also asking for a number of variances (you can read through the filings here), including a reduction of the minimum number of parking spaces and related to fire access and signage.
The CRC category calls for at least 158 spaces. Lidl is seeking a hardship waiver to cut that number to 120-135 spaces.
“Due to the odd shape of the site and the existing topography on the western portion of the site, we do not anticipate bring able to achieve the 158 required parking spaces,” said an architectural engineering letter sent to Lidl dated Sept. 6 and that is included in the filings.
The proposed site plan (see below) would call for a “full access driveway” at the back of the property onto Piedmont Road, and a right-out exit onto Piedmont Road southbound, right before the intersection.
Another entrance to the store would be on Canton Road between a Captain D’s restaurant and the new Bar 44 sports lounge.
Lidl also is requesting another hardship for fire access. The county requires that fire vehicles have access of no greater than 150 feet from all sides of a building.
Lidl said there’s only enough room for access around three sides, and is asking for an access distance minimum of 300 feet.
The engineering letter said the building will be fully sprinkled, and that state law allows for that limit to be relaxed when that is the case.
Lidl initially sought a Northeast Cobb location at the site of the former Park 12 Cobb movie theater, but that request was turned down by Cobb commissioners in 2017, citing traffic reasons.
Lidl was to have been the anchor tenant of the mixed-use redevelopment of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center, but pulled out late last year after the grocery chain couldn’t work out an agreement over traffic access on Sandy Plains Road.
Lidl opened an East Cobb location at Woodlawn Square Shopping Center in September 2020 in the former Fresh Market space.
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I’m sure that zoning is more complex than I can pick up from the story, but I’d like this grocery store in any of the locations. I’m a bit sad it didn’t fit into the Sprayberry rebuild, since that would be walking distance and there isn’t any grocery in that area since the Kroger left.
Canton at Piedmont isn’t terrible, unless parking becomes a nightmare. The RiteAid there is a bit small for a grocery, isn’t it?