Mebane could soon be getting its own Tractor Supply store. There are more than 2,000 Tractor Supply stores nationwide; the stores specialize in products for home improvement, agriculture, lawn and garden maintenance, livestock, equine and pet care for recreational farmers and ranchers, pet owners, and landowners.
Currently, the closest Tractor Supply store is in Burlington, in the same shopping center with the Walmart on Garden Road, near Huffman Mill Road and I-85/40.
The Mebane location would also be near the interstate, off Mebane Oaks Road exit near the Sheetz and Wendy’s.
According to plans and a rezoning request presented to Mebane’s planning board on Monday night, a 21,147 square foot store will be built on about 6.2 acres at the corner of Wilson Road and Forest Oaks Lane. The location is across Forest Oaks Lane from New Millennium Fitness and across Wilson Road from Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A.
The developer has agreed to provide curb and gutter on both sides of Forest Oaks Lane and will also pay to extend Wilson Road to connect to a DOT project that will provide a new intersection with a traffic signal at Wilson Road’s intersection with the entrance road into the Walmart shopping center.
There will be two entrances/exits along Forest Oaks Lane and another on Wilson Road. Part of the back portion of the acreage will be used as an overflow parking lot with about 29 parking spaces for Chick-fil-A, which is across Wilson Road from the new site. There will be 89 parking spaces around the Tractor Supply building.
Mark Tiller of Hendon Properties, the project’s developer, suggested that the company hopes to get started on the project later this spring, and could be completed by the end of the year.
One of the few concerns expressed about the project was by Jared Schumann, whose property is next to the future Tractor Supply lot. Schumann voiced concerns that the commercial project could lower the value of his residential property. He inquired about possibly having more than the 50-foot landscape buffering planned between his residence and the store.
Planning board members ultimately voted 8-0 in favor of rezoning the property from R-20 to a conditional B-2.
Mebane’s city council will consider the rezoning at its April 3 meeting.
