This petition concerns the residents of the Patterson Township and Patterson Heights community and Patterson Township Elementary School area.  This includes parents, students, and staff of Patterson Township school and all residents of this community!

If we lose this fight, Patterson Elementary School traffic will be impacted, neighborhood property values may drop, area crime and traffic will increase, our area will look more economically stunted to investors, and it will mark the beginning of the death of another nice neighborhood. 

801 Darlington Road, the site of the previous Allstate Building, has been purchased for the purpose of constructing a Dollar General (DG) on the parcel. 

The zoning of a portion of the property remains R3 (residential, high density) and the developer is seeking variances to change the zoning to Commercial. In any case, this parcel borders a residential neighborhood and is DIRECTLY across the street from Patterson Township Elementary School.

A DG on this property will disturb the quiet community. It will also contribute to traffic on Darlington Road and throughout the neighborhood, which is already regularly busy and congested with both regular traffic and school drop-off and pick-up traffic. All of this will be amplified with additional traffic from Dollar General, whose entrance will likely be right in the middle of the car pickup line.

Additionally, studies document a rise in crime rates after a DG opens.[1] Such has happened in our own community at other DGs nearby (the closest is only 2 miles away!) No store of this type belongs beside a school and our vulnerable children! 

Furthermore, while dollar stores claim to help economically challenged areas, they are known for having smaller packages and higher prices, and they actually hurt local business growth;studies show that other retail businesses avoid municipal areas with multiple DGs because these stores signal the economic decline of an area—therefore, the area is not seen as a good place to invest.

Our goals are to 1) Keep the area near the school safe and free of crime and more traffic; 2) maintain the quiet, residential status of our community and 5) stop Dollar General from building at 801 Darlington Road.

Help us say NO to Dollar General! Stand up with us and sign this petition now so we can stop DG in its tracks. #savepattersontwp #nodollargeneral