Beckley Planning Commission approves site plan for drive-through business on Harper Road, despite neighbors' protests

Yahoo

05-02-2025

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — Beckley Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a site development plan for a drive-through Starbucks on Harper Road, submitted by a Nicholas County developer.
Dozens of residents of Homewood Drive, along with customers of a locally owned and operated cafe, were at the meeting to protest the Starbucks being built on Harper Road, and city officials said they had received around 250 emails from those who oppose the plan.
The executive director of New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, Jina Belcher, said the incident should encourage city officials to take proactive steps to protect small businesses in the future from similar situations.
City attorney Bill File and the city's chief zoning officer, Donald Morgan, each said the developer's site plan must be approved, based on current law.
'At the end, it's not a situation where this body has the ability or the right to deny the request,' File said. 'You'd be asked to approve the site plan or to approve it with additional conditions.'
Morgan and a representative of Beckley Sanitary Board each said plans submitted by the developer met state and local requirements.
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However, Homewood Drive residents questioned the traffic study, which city officials said the developer had paid to have performed, although.
By law, West Virginia Department of Transportation officials must approve traffic studies.
Residents that the traffic on Harper Road is already slow, sometimes slowing down those on their way to nearby Raleigh General Hospital, while a delivery driver for Young Chow's, a locally owned Chinese restaurant, said that some Harper Road businesses are already harmed by traffic flow on Harper Road during certain hours.
Melissa Farrish, a resident of Homewood Drive, pointed out that her street is across from the lot slated for development.
She said that when residents turn left into the Harper Road turning lane from their street, they will be facing oncoming drive-through traffic from the proposed Starbucks, under the current traffic study.
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A number of people, including Farrish's neighbor, Sam Lambert, also spoke against the developer's plan to build a Starbucks a few doors down from The Chocolate Moose Cafe, a local business owned by Kevin Traube, which also offers Mountain State Mini Golf and the Outdoor-In Climbing Gym.
'My wife Elizabeth and I actually had our very first date at Kevin's Chocolate Moose, and here we are, all these years later, celebrating the fact that we live across the street,' said Lambert. 'You know, as young homebuyers, that was really important for us, to know that we had something to do and somewhere to go.'
Traube's employees said the local business founder had given them timely raises over the year and that the business sourced its coffee ethically, paying coffee farmers well.
One speaker said his son was in Tennessee, completing his studies to be a doctor, and that he wanted him to return to West Virginia.
He said unique places like The Chocolate Moose and other businesses could draw West Virginians home.
Scott Hill, a longtime customer of The Chocolate Moose, suggested Traube was a visionary who had invested in the Harper Road area at a time when others were not.
He came here forty years ago and started a business, when a lot of people weren't starting a business here, and that business evolved. He's a genius,' said Hill. 'He said, 'I'm going to build a golf course on a hillside,' and he went and did it.'
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The executive director of New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, Jina Belcher, said that, in light of current laws which forbid city officials from denying approved site plans in properly zoned areas, the incident involving The Chocolate Moose and Starbucks should encourage city officials to take steps to protect small businesses in the future.
'This situation presents a very unique opportunity for some pro-active planning, to strengthen protections and incentives for our small businesses in the future,' said Belcher. 'Our communities across the region have implemented policies such as small business overlay districts that have zoning incentives that encourage small and locally owned businesses in very key areas.'
Belcher said city officials could limit national chains in key districts and can adopt rules regarding signage, turning lanes and lighting, which could also protect small, local businesses.
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