COLD SPRINGS, Ky. — The Cold Spring’s Kroger on Martha Layne Collins Boulevard has been approved by the planning commission for a $35 million rehaul that would more than double its size.
Plans for the Kroger at 70 Martha Layne Collins Boulevard and Salmon Pass call to rebuild from a 60,662-square-foot store to a 131,000-square-foot store with a separate 8,000-square-foot wine and spirit shop, fuel center, a pharmacy drive-through window and more.
The Cold Spring Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Feb. 12 was rescheduled from three previously canceled meetings from Oct. 16, 2024, Nov. 13, 2024 and Dec. 11, 2024. The Cold Spring City Council will make the final decision on the project’s passing.
For size reference, the new store will be larger than the 117,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace in the Newport Pavilion. The development proposes 527 parking spaces, 10 bike parking spaces and 16 online shopping pickup spaces. Access to the Cold Spring Kroger would be from Martha Layne Collins Boulevard and Salmon Pass.
Kroger Zoning Consultant Ann McBride, who did the zoning on the original store, said the existing store, built in 1988, does not offer the variety of goods and services Kroger customers have come to expect.
There is currently no fuel center or pharmacy drive-through window at the location. Customers also must pick up online orders from lockers, and the availability of merchandise is limited due to the store’s size.
The project anticipates that 100 full-time and part-time workers will be added.
The full scope of services expected at the new store according to current development plans:
- A two-lane drive-through pharmacy window
- Nine fuel pumps
- 16 online shopping pickup spaces
- An expansion of all departments
- Creation of a Murry’s Cheese section
- Fresh sushi and popcorn station
- Florist shop
- Apparel section
- Home goods section
- Bakery
- Pet department
- Expanded pharmacy
- Seasonal merchandise
- Money services
- Starbucks Coffee
The Cold Spring Kroger will likely start construction in the fall of 2025, and the project would take 14-16 months to complete, according to the current development plans.
A sound barrier wall for adjacent property owners is one of the plans that have changed since the canceled Dec. 11, 2024, meeting.
In December, Don Seibert, a spokesman for the Chardonnay condo association, told our media partner LINK nky that residents were concerned about noise, specifically, from a loading dock for trucks that Seibert said would be about 15 feet from his back deck.
Chardonnay is a 166-unit condominium community located off Poles Creek Road.
The new plans call for an eight-foot-tall sound attenuation barrier along 325 feet of the southwest portion of the back of the property. Additionally, site plans show a six-foot earthen mound has been added along 220 feet to the rear of the eastern portion of the store to provide further screening.
Increased landscaping is also indicated, which would serve as a buffer between the store complex, homes on Neltner Drive, and the condos.
Seibert, who could not attend the meeting, told LINK nky that Kroger has been very receptive to their requests. Those mostly centered around the sound barrier wall and ways to mitigate the drainage problems that they were anticipating.
“They have been most helpful and responsive,” he said. “We had a few little hiccups, but everything is worked out.”
The development plans note and residents at the meeting expressed concerns regarding an existing drainage problem and the potential for that to increase. A second detention area was requested by the city engineer to further reduce flow beyond what was initially planned. Campbell County Planning & Zoning Director Cindy Minter said the basin should reduce overflows from 20% to 50%.
“It is not intended that this development fix everything in the Chardonnay complex from a drainage perspective, but we shouldn’t be making any worse, and I feel like we’re actually going to be making it better,” Minter said.
McBride said Kroger worked to address neighbors’ concerns to the best of their ability and to improve their situation.
One Cold Spring resident asked McBride during the meeting if Kroger had done a study to determine why such a large store was necessary for the area.
“You have a lot of senior citizens, elderly people, that have lived here a long, long time, that can very well navigate the store that’s there now,” the resident said during the meeting. “They like the size of it. That was one of my main concerns. The other concern is, where do you feel like these 100 employees are going to come from?”
McBride said Kroger does a lot of market research before determining if an area needs a new store or if they need to expand an existing store. Further, she said Kroger would not be making a $35 million investment if they hadn’t done their homework.
“I’ll just say, to be competitive with other grocery stores and other businesses in the market,” McBride said. “They want to continue to offer the most current things that people are looking for. If you’re going to do a charcuterie board. You’d like to see more than just slices of American cheese on it, right? So those kinds of features they want to be able to offer in greater detail and greater expansion than what they can in their existing store.”
Part of the 20 acre-site was once slated for a self-storage facility. According to the development plans, the site was then rezoned for a multifamily complex in 2023, but stage two plans were never submitted. The new plans, upon approval by the city council, would void those proposed developments.
Part of the staff recommendation was to change the zoning designation from residential-3 and neighborhood shopping centers to a mixed-use planned development zone. Though the mixed-use planned development zone allows for residential development, that is not proposed for the lot.
The fuel pumps were approved as a conditional use. Fuel dispensing facilities are listed in the zoning code under conditional uses when “incidental to and operated within 1,000 feet of a grocery store containing at least 40,000 gross square feet” when they are not directly adjacent to or fronting on US 27.
A traffic analysis was also completed at the request of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to confirm patterns along Martha Layne Collins Boulevard. The study and the recommendations were approved by the transportation department.
The following improvements are in the plans regarding the intersection of Alexandria Pike (US 27) and Martha Layne Collins Boulevard:
- Restripe the eastbound Martha Layne Collins Boulevard approach so that a shared left turn/through lane is provided and maintain the separate dedicated right turn lane.
- Widen Martha Layne Collins Boulevard to the west of Alexandria Pike (approximately 315 feet) to extend the eastbound shared left turn/through lane and dedicated right turn lane.
- Modify signal timing and phasing to split eastbound and westbound approaches and to provide a right turn overlap for the eastbound right turns so they operate concurrently with the northbound left turns.
- Widen Alexandria Pike to the north of Martha Layne Collins Boulevard (approximately 180 feet) to extend the southbound right turn lane.
- This has to go to Cold Spring City Council for final approval.
This story originally appeared on our partner's website LINK nky.
