CVS Proposal Worries Fairfax Neighbors

By Corbin Ensminger

About 60 residents of the Fairfax neighborhood came out to a Crowfield clubhouse Thursday night to voice their concerns over plans for a new CVS store on the corner of St. James Avenue and Fairfax Boulevard — right across from Chick-fil-A.

Currently, the lot is woods, and almost all of those at the meeting want it to stay that way.

The drugstore is moving down the street from its current location in the shopping center with Big Lots. CVS is spending approximately $4 million to relocate its store, according to Adams and Williams Development, the firm coordinating the project.

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Scott Adams and George Wilson brought drawings and plans for the store to Thursday's meeting for a discussion with residents and to get feedback before a formal request to the city's Planning Commission. That process will likely begin near the end of the year. 

There were two main concerns that kept coming up: increased traffic and the safety of children in a nearby park.

Fairfax has a small park located across from the proposed store. Residents said they are worried about the safety of children with the increase in traffic, and with the entrance near the park.

The Whitfield Company owns the property, which extends farther into the neighborhood. After much discussion, the idea came up to build a new park at the end of the lot.

Adams said he would talk with the Whitfield Company about that. However, the property would still be zoned as commercial, which means any other business could move in later.

Businesses are required to have two entrances, and since the lot borders protected wetlands the only other realistic option is to put an entrance on Fairfax Boulevard at the front of the neighborhood.

When asked, the engineers said it was possible to build a road between Walmart and the CVS for the second entrance, but because most of the 8 acres between the locations is protected wetlands, the cost to acquire the land would likely outweigh the cost of the new building.