Grocer might build in town
If all goes as planned, in a few years, Harris Teeter could be Summerfield's neighborhood market.
Representatives for the Matthews-based grocery store chain met Thursday with some of the town's residents about the possibility of opening a Harris Teeter in the town.
"We would like to get everybody's input and incorporate that into the plans," said Chip Mark , a partner with MarkPiercePoole Properties.
MarkPiercePoole is the commercial real estate company working with Harris Teeter to open new stores.
The company wants to build a mixed-use development with the grocery store as the anchor.
"It's a village; it's not like a strip center," Mark said.
The nearly 90-acre project would include the grocery store with space for about 30 shops and three open parcels.
Also included will be a 41-lot subdivision behind the shops. The subdivision would include a park and two miles of walking trails.
With this size development coming into Summerfield, some residents worry about the effect on their property.
"I'm not opposed to it, but it's a mighty big complex to put in without municipal water and sewer," property owner Robert Jones said.
Most Summerfield residents use well water and septic tanks.
Jones' property backs up to the development on the west side - the side where the septic system for the development would go.
He worries that the waste water and sewage from this complex will contaminate his well.
Homer Wade, the president of Borum, Wade and Associates , said the engineers anticipate using pump septic systems to keep possible contaminants from backing up and tainting wells.
Other neighbors at the meeting expressed concern about the threat of more traffic on the already-congested N.C. 150 and Lake Brandt Road.
Mark told the residents that a traffic study has already been conducted and traffic will be delayed only seconds on the two-lane roads.
"I think these are very valid concerns," said Keith Rudemiller , the store's vice president of real estate. "These are the standard things that we know we're going to have to deal with and that's why we have these meetings."
Rudemiller said Summerfield is the type of community the store finds appealing.
"It's a nice community," he said. "One thing we bring to the market is a sense of community involvement."
Rudemiller said the company is active in fundraising efforts in the neighborhoods and schools near its stores.
Though the developers had this open house, the town's planner, Craig Harmon , said it's important that residents know that no paperwork has been filed for this development.
"This was not a town meeting," he said.
"If they come back to ask for rezoning, then we will have a town open house ... Then the planning board will have a public hearing, and so would the council."
Currently, the town has only one grocery store, Food Lion, and it needs some competition, resident Ben Dawkins said.
"Summerfield deserves a little bit more."
Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 449-4731, or tiffany.jones@news-record.com
