There just might be room for another Lidl grocer in Stafford County.
The discount supermarket from Neckarsulm, Germany, is looking to open a second store in the county. Its first location in Stafford opened on Route 17 in November 2017.
When reached for comment, Lidl public relations spokesperson Chandler Ebeier replied, ”We are looking at a number of options in the Stafford County area.” One option that was mentioned a public meeting regarding the supermarket chain was North Stafford, but Lill has a few hurdles it’ll have to cross before it can open a new store.
The grocer has asked county officials to be allowed to build the new parking lot for the new store, wherever it might be, below the current standards of the county code.
Currently, for new stores built as part of shopping centers, the standard is for seven parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet.
For free-standing stores such as Lidl, the standard is five spaces for every 1,000 square feet.
Lidl is requesting its new parking lot have four parking spaces per 1,000 square feet, according to county officials. This change may not be out of the question, however, for a few reasons.
- The standard the supermarket chain is asking for is consistent with the standards of other counties in the area.
- It’s an industry standard that LIDL itself follows
- It would be a standard consistent with the Chesapeake Bay Act and their goal of reducing the amount of new impervious surfaces.
The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act was enacted by the Virginia General Assembly in 1988, the act was designed to enhance water quality while allowing reasonable development to continue.
The Act recognizes that local governments have the primary responsibility for land-use decisions, expanding local government authority to manage water quality, and establish a more specific relationship between water quality protection and local land use decision making.
Such a change in the county’s standards of parking as Lidl is requesting would be in compliance with the regulations of the Act. As such, the county is also considering a change to those standards that would allow different standards for low, medium, and high-intensity parking that county leaders believe would be a better standard, that would serve the ever-evolving nature of retail development.
The Stafford County Planning Commission is now reviewing the grocer’s request.
Lidl opened its first store in the region near Manassas in 2017. In addition to it and its store on Route 17 in Stafford County, the grocer operates stores in Lake Ridge, one near Dumfries, and a store in Culpeper. It also operates a distribution center in Spotsylvania County.
