A small city in Gwinnett County is clamping down on the high number of small, “nondescript” retail stores opening near U.S. 29.
On Monday, Lilburn City Council unanimously agreed to temporarily ban new applications for “small-box retail stores” until 2023. The action targets establishments of 6,000 square feet or less that offer discounted goods, including convenience stores, used merchandise stores, dollar stores and hobby stores.
In recent years, stores with “nondescript” names and covered windows have opened in “very small spaces in retail centers without enough space, in our opinion, to really sell any products or get your name out there,” said Planning Director Joellen Wilson.
The ban will likely not affect well-known dollar stores, such as Dollar General or Dollar Tree, as their floor plans usually exceed the 6,000-square-foot threshold in the resolution. It will not affect any existing stores or applications still pending that were submitted prior to the council’s action.
Officials hope to attract “high-end” retail along U.S. 29, a road that serves as an entry to Lilburn and where many of these stores are concentrated in small units of strip malls. The ban comes shortly after the city hired Retail Strategies as a consultant to help it attract new retail and restaurants on the highway.
The ban will give the city time to modify the city’s zoning ordinance and licensing rules to regulate these “inconvenient convenience stores,” said Jenny Simpkins, assistant city manager of Lilburn.
The stores aren’t associated with crime or dangers to public safety, Simpkins said. City staffers noticed the uptick of these stores popping up during the pandemic, Simpkins said, leading them to recommend the temporary ban to have time to figure out where they should be allowed to operate.
Other metro Atlanta jurisdictions have imposed broader bans on discount stores. In 2020, DeKalb County passed a temporary ban on “small-box discount stores” of less than 16,000 square feet. Stonecrest, one of DeKalb’s largest cities, placed an outright ban on future discount stores.
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