Plans for Pig on Vine Street under review

Plans for a new Crestline Piggly Wiggly are before the city, but not all residents are supporting them in their current state.

A plan to rezone property for the new store is coming before the city’s Planning Commission Monday, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 56 Church Street. From there, it will go before the city council on Nov. 24.

The proposed 28,250-square-foot store would be located on Vine Street between Dexter Avenue and West Jackson Boulevard. The building would occupy the current sites of Crestline Early Learning Center, Please Reply, a Girl Scout building and a vacant lot — but not the current CVS building or its parking lot as was discussed in preliminary plans in February.

Andy Virciglio, who owned the former Crestline store and will co-own the new one with the Ajlouny family, said all the potential properties in Crestline were vetted, and this is the only site that fits all the requirements for the neighborhood grocery.

The store would be larger than the former 15,000-square-foot former store in Crestline, but Virciglio said it is still smaller than the Publix on Overton Road, which a Publix store representative said is around 44,000 square feet. The store would have a 23,000 square footprint, with 18,000 square feet of selling space, fitting with a neighborhood market model.

 “We think it will fit nicely into neighborhood with windows, shutters, planters outside, and an outdoor seating area with umbrellas and tables,” Virciglio said.

Randall Pitts, whose mother, Susan, owns 58 Vine Street and 23 Dexter Ave., said his family was recently approached by the Piggly Wiggly developer about selling their properties. Their family’s concerns are wider than effects on what they own, though.

“We are opposed to anything that will bring in commercial traffic,” Randall Pitts said, citing the city’s 2007 master plan calling for transitional areas like Vine Street to never feature commercial development.

Resident Catherine Loveman said she is most concerned with the proximity of the store to Crestline Elementary, where her two children are students. She has also studied the high volume of traffic at the field adjacent to the school on Saturdays and calculated that 694 teams have played games on it in the past 37 weeks, which also concerns her.

The Pitts organized a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at the Emmet O’Neal Library to present the plans that are before the planning commission to the public on posters. In addition to safety of school children, residents at the meeting discussed concerns with the plan’s allowance of 50-foot wheel base trucks coming onto side streets and the viability of a store larger than the one that was closed before.

Virciglio said the store has been collaborating with the city and school board on traffic and safety issues and has determined that no large trucks will make deliveries during school hours. As far as parking is concerned, there would be a net gain of parking spaces, and a net loss of one parking space on Church Street, he said. The current plans show 92 spaces in a lot and along Vine Street.

“It’s all about a greater good, and I think the community wants a Pig in its neighborhood,” Virciglio said.

The city has worked with the developers on the traffic plans for the site using a traffic study by Skipper Consulting commissioned by the developers and a review of it by Sain Associates that the city commissioned.

The store would take nine to 10 months to build after ground is broken, but Virciglio does not know now when that will be.

Pitts is largely concerned with increasing resident awareness before the Nov. 3 meeting and is encouraging residents with concerns to contact Planning Commission and City Council members.

“We want people to see the plans and the city to slow down enough that people will be able to digest what it all means,” Pitts said.

He said he would also like for the developers to consider alternate sites in the area for a grocery store.

To learn more about the Piggly Wiggly plans, see the full version on the Planning Commission page on the city’s website.

Update 10/29/14, 9:35 a.m.:

The Board of Education has posted a list of requests it has submitted regarding the Piggly Wiggly development.

Update 10/29/14, 1:35 p.m.:

A new rendering of the store's exterior was released and added to the top of this story.