Lidl US will open a grocery store in Mableton - an expansion into the U.S. of a German-based grocery store chain now in 26 countries with more than 10,000 stores and 230,000 employees.
Permission was granted by a 4-1 vote Tuesday of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners with Commissioner Lisa Cupid opposed.
Cupid said the application is “not in conformity with the land use plan due to proximity to residential.”
Also, Cupid said there is “no need for another grocery store” in Mableton and Lidl has “mixed reviews overseas.”
“There are a lot of discount stores in the area,” Cupid added.
The site is at 4730 Floyd Road on the north side of White Boulevard and the west side of Floyd Road.
Property owners are Diane Sue Weldon, Betty James Barnes, the estate of Thurston Brown and Joyce Brown.
However, the site will be purchased and not leased by Lidl US, a privately owned company.
In operation since the 1930s in Germany, the grocery store will comprise 36,000 square feet and roll out no later than 2018.
On behalf of Lidl, attorney Parks Huff said Lidl will be “a great new product.”
Speaking in opposition and calling it “a discount business,” Robin Meyer, zoning chair of the Mableton Improvement Coalition, said this grocery store is “too big and intense” to be next to a neighborhood.
Noting a petition with 168 residents in opposition that was started by a Mableton family, Meyer said MIC also is against the proposal since Lidl US “fails the future land use plan” for Mableton.
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