Above: Aerial view shows planned location of Dollar General store at the corner of East Main Road and Sprague Street. This photo appears on the website of Atlantic Retail Properties (http://atlanticretail.com), which is advertising for another tenant for the north side of the development.

PORTSMOUTH — Remaining hopeful that it’s not already a done deal, two business owners have started a petition this week against a Dollar General store planned for the corner of Sprague Street and East Main Road.

The discount chain, which operates more than 11,500 stores nationwide, received unanimous approval for a special-use permit March 19 from the town’s Zoning Board of Review for a two-building complex on the commercially zoned site. (About a week earlier, the Planning Board voted unanimously to make a favorable recommendation for the permit to the zoning board.)

The permit was necessary for the retail/office buildings, which exceed 15,000 square feet, and for a proposed drive-through window. A shared parking facility of 79 spaces is also part of the plan.

But at least two nearby business owners — Denise Wilkey of DC Stoneware and Denys Eftekhar of Cory Farms Past and Presents, both just south of the development — say they were stunned to learn of the project just last week. They’ve started a petition to oppose the store, which they say doesn’t fit in with the character of Portsmouth.

“I grew up in this town; It was rural with farms,” said Ms. Wilkey, who acknowledged she’s shopped at Dollar General but feels that such a business doesn’t belong in Portsmouth. “We’re just turning ourselves into Middletown, one by one. It just cheapens the town.”

Her other objection is her belief that several abutters never received notification of the plans.

“We never got a letter. They sent one out and it never made it to our mailbox,” said Ms. Wilkey, adding that she would have been “up and arms” had she known of the project earlier. “I’ve already found two more people who were not notified, who had no clue this was going on.”

A legal notice appeared in the Newport Daily News, but Ms. Wilkey said few people read those announcements. “Am I negligent in missing it? I guess so. But there’s got to be a better system in place than a letter that may or make it to my mailbox,” Ms. Wilkey said, before adding of the legal notice, “They can’t keep falling back on that.”

One abutter at meeting

John Borden, a member of the zoning board, said that to the best of his knowledge, all abutters were notified. “That did not come up at the meetings,” he said.

The only abutter who appeared before the zoning board, he said, was Paul Kesson, who lives directly across the street from the proposed development. According to the minutes of the March 19 meeting, Mr. Kesson raised concerns over runoff, lighting and noise.

The zoning board set several conditions in approving the project, including limiting exterior lighting to 30 minutes before and after normal business hours. The developers will also remove the existing hedge in front of the Kesson property and plant arborvitae there to help block the light from the store.

Other conditions included no outside vending machines, limiting the drive-through window in the second building to a bank, surfacing the rear of the two structures with hardy plank clapboard, and other stipulations.

The developers came back to the zoning board last month to ask permission for an oversized sign — about 100 square feet — but that was unanimously denied, said Mr. Borden.

Met all the criteria

As for the project itself, Mr. Borden said zoning board members can’t let whatever personal feelings they may have about a development cloud their interpretation of the town’s zoning ordinance.

“Do I personally think we need a dollar store? Am I going to shop there? Probably not. I might check it out,” he said. “But this is zoned commercial and they met the criteria for a special-use permit. They have a right to open their business.”

Even Ms. Wilkey acknowledged as much. “They are within their rights to put up a building like that,” she said. However, the town needs to rethink its zoning ordinance to prevent “trashy” chain stores from being allowed here, she said.

The store’s timetable is unclear. David P. Martland, a Middletown attorney who represented the developers at the March zoning board meeting, did not return a phone call to The Portsmouth Times.

William E. Clark, the town’s director of business development, said he doesn’t believe Dollar General has yet acquired the property from its owners, Global Country of World Peace. The religious organization purchased the property years ago with the original intention of erecting a temple, he said.

Mr. Clark said he can’t see a Dollar General “swooping in” and capturing the attention of local shoppers. However, he said, “It’s a type of store you’ll get a good passing car count,” something he said the town lacks. Time will tell whether such a store is successful here, he said.

“You never know. There are a lot of people who wish we had a Target store here,” he said, referring to the big box store that pulled out of Portsmouth years ago after Preserve Portsmouth led a successful campaign against the project. Mr. Clark said the town needs to find a “happy medium” of commercial development that attracts shoppers but is keeping with Portsmouth’s character.

Conni Harding of Preserve Portsmouth said while Dollar General is not comparable to Target, the chain store isn’t a good fit for Portsmouth.

“A stone’s throw from the proposed stores are several 200- to 300-year-old historic homes being lovingly preserved by its residents,” she said. “Our community can do much better than this. We need to revisit our current land use plans and stop the sprawl."

‘They may rethink’

As for the petition, Ms. Wilkey said she hopes that local businesses will keep them near registers for customers to sign. She’s not sure at this point where the petition will be delivered.

“I’ve never done this before,” said Ms. Wilkey, adding that she also doesn’t know what kind of impact the petition would have at this point.

“They already have permission but if there’s enough of a public outcry, they may rethink.”