New Napa site found to accommodate
Walgreens project
By Thomas Wilson
STAR STAFF
twilson@starhq.com
An auto parts business moving to make way for
a Walgreens drug store could be locating across the highway
from its present Broad Street location.
A site plan submitted to the city's Planning
Department by the Appalachia Design Services engineering firm
of Blountville calls for the Napa Auto Parts business at 212
Broad St. to relocate across the street to the 100 block.
The site plan puts the new Napa store location on two adjacent
property tracts where Shell & Associates, 119 Broad St.,
and a former used automobile dealership presently stand.
Dempsey Shell, Sr. of Shell and Associates said
Wednesday that the relocation of his real estate firm was
"a possibility" if the developments fell into place. "If all
this would go through, the store would go on this lot and
(the used auto) lot," said Shell.
The Walgreens development plan approved by the
Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission earlier this year
places the drug store on the corner of Broad Street and Lynn
Avenue. The development took the property presently occupied
by Napa as well as two residential properties lying along
East C Street and Lynn Avenue.
"As part of the Walgreens project, the entire
Napa store needed to be relocated so that property could be
combined with the Walgreens development," said David Ornduff,
city director of planning and development.
The Planning Commission voted in January to rezone
property at 213 East C St. from R-2 residential to B-2 business
and close an alley between Broad Street and East C Street
as part of the development. The Walgreens project developer,
Ed Street of Johnson City, had indicated to Planning Commission
members in February that the project was contingent on the
closure of several options on properties.
The Walgreens project initially came to the commission
by Site, Inc., which proposed placing the drug store on the
former North American Rayon Corp. property. The development
was essentially scrapped when the planners approved a site
plan that denied a new curb cut access point on West Elk Avenue
for the drug store.
The Planning Commission is expected to review
the Napa site plan proposal at its May meeting, Ornduff said.
