ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Audraine Jackson said Family Dollar is stepping over the line.
The discount retailer is building a store at Fairburn Road and Benjamin E. Mays Drive in Jackson's Cascade Heights neighborhood in southwest Atlanta, and another one at Boulevard Granada and Cascade Road just three miles away.
Family Dollar has another store up and running on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
Jackson complained that the retailer operates eight stores within a few miles of each other. She and other neighbors are tired of what they call low-end stores moving into mixed-income African American communities and dragging down neighborhoods with them.
"This is not an expansion. This is an invasion," Jackson said. "You are bringing something into a community that does not gel with our community. The problem we have is with oversaturation."
Jackson went on to say that the stores can bring property value down.
"This is not your high-end store that makes every zip code go up. This is one that brings your property value down."
The zoning committee, on Wednesday morning, sent a proposal to the full city council, calling for a six-month moratorium on building permits for small stores less than 8,000 square feet.
The council could vote on the measure as early as next Tuesday.
The move would not affect Family Dollar's stores already under construction, but would block retailers like family dollar from getting more licenses to build in the Cascade Heights community.
Councilman CT Martin sponsored the proposal. When asked if the measure would unfairly target the retailer, Martin answered, "Family Dollar unfairly targets residential streets in our community."
Martin said discount stores scare off higher-end retailers, some believe are vital for economic development.
"They see the stores presently, they have a concern," Martin said.
CBS Atlanta repeatedly called Family Dollar, but the voicemail for the retailer's spokeswoman would not take any messages. A number for an alternate phone merely rang and then disconnected our calls.
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