Business

Store wars continue with city approval of new Ingles

Hendersonville City Council members study a site plan from John Cox, an engineer for Ingles.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 13, 2015

Over the objections of adjoining property owners who warned about flooding, traffic and a disputed roadway, the Hendersonville City Council unanimously approved the development of a new Ingles supermarket on Spartanburg Highway.

The Black Mountain-based grocer plans to bulldoze the existing 46,000-square-foot store at 625 Spartanburg Highway and replace it with a 72,000-square-foot store. The council approved variances for parking and for the northwest corner of the building. It also approved the site plan and a third right-in driveway on Spartanburg Highway for a Gas Express.
The chain wants to replace the 35-year-old building “to give customers a better more up-to-date more customer friendly store,” said Preston Kendall, project manager for Ingles. “We really think this will help the appearance of Spartanburg Highway and this area and give the customers more than they can get out of the store now.”
Engineers for Ingles and neighbors disagreed on whether a proposal to cover a wide drainage ditch will cause more or less flooding.
Jim Barnett, who owns property on Greenville Highway, said that the open ditch works like a retention pond and collects water. Without it, he said, water from the drainage area will likely back up even more, contributing to the common flooding on Greenville Highway at Atha Plaza, Haus Heidelberg and his real estate office.
“This culvert will not be large enough in flooding conditions,” he said. “Can you imagine if that thing got stopped up? That’s just like a dam.”
Barnett urged the council to order a better drainage plan.
“We don’t have an opportunity like this very often,” Barnett said. “This is a real opportunity to improve the whole area if we do it right.”
Two engineers for Ingles, John Cox and Robert Billings, countered by saying that the development will include larger pipes that should actually carry more water into Mud Creek north of the site than the current pipes.
“It’s already piped off,” Cox said. “We’re not making the condition worse because the way we feel we’re making the piping better. We’re sure that we’re going to improve the drainage for smaller storms. We will get the smaller storms downstream quicker.”
As he had done at two other board meetings, commercial real estate broker Gary Jones explained the details of a lawsuit he filed against the city and Ingles. The City Council granted Ingles’ request in 2013 to close the parts of Penny Street and Joel Wright Drive that run on either side of the store. Jones says the city had no authority to close private streets that are jointly owned by property owners of the shopping center, which was originally created as commercial condominium.

“The plan they showed you has parking, curbing and planting on my right of way,” he said.
Kendall said Ingles made change in an effort to satisfy Jones.
“Ingles realizes that the litigation could delay our project so instead of delaying any further we decided to rearrange our store,” he said. “We made it smaller. In 2013 the store was a little bigger and it was sitting in part of that area.”
The store’s footprint no longer touches either street, he said.