HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- The Henrico Planning Commission advanced a development plan Thursday that includes a Wegmans grocery store.
Wegmans hopes to build in Short Pump at West Broad Marketplace, a development planned for West Broad Street near North Gayton Road. This is just west of Short Pump Towne Center. The store will look similar to other Wegmans in Virginia stores and range in size from 120,000 to 140,000 sq. ft.
Part of the development includes Cabela’s Incorporated, an outfitter for hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, who announced plans to open near the Wegmans in 2016.
Jack Waghorn, President of NV Retail which is the developer said Wegmans could also be a 24 hour store.
Some traffic concerns were addressed at Thursday night's meeting. Waghorn said engineers are working to finalize a traffic study and the impact analysis.
"The county of fortunate enough to plan for this so we are only fulfilling what the county has planned for long ago," said Waghorn.
The plan now goes before the Henrico Board of Supervisors. They are expected to vote August 12.
Ahead of Thursday's vote, homes from Willow Lawn to Short Pump started getting phone calls and flyers were distributed.
“It was just odd, the whole thing was odd,” said Maria Greco, who received three phone calls about Wegmans.
CBS 6 looked into the calls and found they are not coming from people who actually live in the area.
“They said that they were a group called ‘concerned citizens of Short Pump’ and they wanted to know if I was concerned about the Wegmans, nothing else, specifically the Wegmans coming in,” said resident Kathy McCann.
Those who got the calls say the caller on the other end had an agenda. One resident said he received more than 60 calls from the number.
“She basically started talking about how the Wegmans was going to, she said to me, increase crime,” said April Sullivan.
Other callers said they were told about crime, traffic and air pollution. But no other new businesses were mentioned.
Many residents said they were not left with concerns over the grocery store, but rather concerns about the caller.
“I question whether there’s a concerned citizens of Short Pump or if it’s just concerned executives of area grocery stores,”McCann.
When the number is called, a concerned citizen of Short Pump doesn’t answer — instead it’s a recording by a telemarketing company.
There was no opposition at Thursday's public meeting.
Wegmans plans to also open another location n Chesterfield. Wegmans will anchor Stonehenge Village Shopping Center on Midlothian Turnpike near Chesterfield Town Center Mall, according to the Rochester, New York-based grocery chain.
CBS 6 Chelsea Rarrick will have a full report ahead on the 11 p.m. newscast.
