Patrick McCuan is a multi-millionaire developer who lives in Maryland and Florida.
McCuan is the CEO of MDG Companies. (MDG stands for McCuan Development Group.)
MDG built the Cacapon South development in southern Morgan County across from Cacapon State Park.
Most of the lots at Cacapon South sold and houses were built.
But right at the corner of 522 and Oakland Road is a separate MDG residential development called Oakland Overlook, consisting of twelve one-half acre lots that are sale for $50,000 a lot.
According to MDG, “these lots will appeal to individuals and builders who need an accessible and convenient site on which to build homes in the moderately priced range but not necessarily of the cookie cutter variety.”
Problem: the Oakland Overlook lots weren’t selling.
So, without consulting with the residents of Cacapon South, McCuan decided to sell a portion of the Oakland Overlook lots to Dollar General.
Not a sure fire way to build good will among your neighbors.
What would McCuan think if Dollar General decided to drop a store in his neighborhood across from Sunset Hills at McCuan Farms in Woodbine, Maryland or outside his neighborhood at the Cypress Woods development in Naples, Florida — without consulting with McCuan or his neighbors?
McCuan sits on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
He has a dormitory named after him at the St. Margaret’s School in Tappahannock, Virginia.
In 2006, McCuan and his wife Jill donated $1.2 million to Howard Community College and have a building named after them there also.
Dollar General is planning on buying a portion of the Oakland Overlook lots and word is that McCuan and MDG are planning on donating the remaining residential lots in Oakland Overlook to Habitat for Humanity.
The Dollar General development is a poke in the eye to the local community — and maybe McCuan thinks a donation to Habitat to Humanity will make him look good. (Not likely.)
Oakland Overlook is in a rural area, less than a mile away from Cacapon State Park and across Oakland Road from a community church.
A Dollar General doesn’t belong there. If it belongs anywhere, it belongs where it already is — ten miles up the road in Berkeley Springs.
We don’t need another Dollar General in Morgan County.
One Dollar General is enough.
Safety is already an issue in the area, with trucks flying southbound on the two lane 522 — down a hill approaching Oakland Road.
Near misses already abound — even without a Dollar General there.
To sum up:
A Dollar General in the southern part of Morgan County is unnecessary.
It’s ugly.
It’s unsafe.
It’s too close to the church.
It’s too close to Cacapon State Park.
And it will undermine locally owned businesses.
A community meeting is being planned for Monday night January 19 (snow date January 21) at the Union Chapel United Methodist Church (corner of Oakland Road and 522) to voice community opposition to the proposed Dollar General store.
The Morgan County Planning Commission has scheduled a meeting for January 27 at 7 pm at the Morgan County Courthouse to consider a proposal to allow for commercial development at Oakland Overlook.
Around the country — in Vermont, California, New York and elsewhere — communities are rising up to put a stop Dollar General’s insatiable sweep — 11,000 stores and counting — across America.
Add West Virginia to the list.