Developers looking to build a Family Dollar in Mancos were met with protest signs at Wednesday's town board meeting.
The town's moratorium on stores greater than 5,000 square feet expires in mid-March. The trustees could extend it if they choose.
Family Dollar already has property under contract to purchase on the corner of Willow and Menefee streets facing U.S. Highway 160, said Greg Wall, a project manager with T&N Properties.
The town can't accept an application for any new location until the moratorium is lifted.
The presentation drew a crowd that filled Town Hall, and several residents spoke against a new location.
"Please do your best to stop this infiltration of junk. We don't need it," said Ginny Moore, a town resident.
Resident Liz Bohm spoke about the experience other towns have had with stores like Family Dollar and how they've hurt the local economy. For every one job that a corporate store creates, 1.4 local jobs are lost, she said.
"There's a lot of data that shows negative impact," she said.
The potential developers, Wall and Brad Lasater, a corporate real estate broker, spoke to town trustees about making a new building visually appealing.
A new store would be 8,300 square feet. Only about 5,000 square feet would be visible to the public, and this equates to about half the size of a Walgreens, they said. The company would be willing to decorate the building with faux stone to help it blend into the neighborhood and use muted lighting on sign. A store would employ about nine to 11 people, and the sites are maintained and stocked well, Lasater said.
"We're good neighbors actually," Lasater said.
Alan Rolston said he was concerned about a store's economic impact on the town.
"Studies show that bigger retail stores, they don't expand the pie; they take the share of other existing businesses," he said.
Chip Tuthill said the business could open just outside of town to avoid town restrictions.
"What are we, a one-mile strip? They can move outside of that," he said.
When asked after the meeting why Family Dollar didn't move out of town, Wall reiterated his willingness to work with the city.
"We don't try and be underhanded, we try to meet with the city and comply with their ordinances and codes," he said.
The moratorium was put in place for 180 days, and it stated that Mancos' land use code did not outline regulations or specify proper locations for large-scale retail stores.
The moratorium stated its purpose was to give the town time to update the land-use codes.
The trustees said at the meeting they would continue to work with the Planning and Zoning Committee to revise town codes concerning businesses such as Family Dollar.Trustees OK measure putting flat fee on pot
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