Rezoning may lead to city’s first Publix
Published 6:00 am Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Vehicles travel along Nashville Road past Dillard Road on Tuesday morning, March 25, 2025, after City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and potentially Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to a 30-acre site at the intersection of Nashville Road and Dillard Road. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Buried water line flags mark a field on the corner of Nashville Road and Dillard Road on Tuesday morning, March 25, 2025, after City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and potentially Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to the 30-acre site at the intersection. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
A tree’s shadow falls on a lot on the corner of Nashville Road and Dillard Road on Tuesday morning, March 25, 2025, after City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and potentially Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to the 30-acre site at the intersection. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Vehicles travel along Nashville Road past Grow Blooms and Gardens on Tuesday morning, March 25, 2025, after City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and potentially Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to a 30-acre site at the intersection of Nashville Road and Dillard Road. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Vehicles travel along Nashville Road past Dillard Road on Tuesday morning, March 25, 2025, after City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and potentially Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to a 30-acre site at the intersection of Nashville Road and Dillard Road. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
A proposed real estate development that could help address Warren County’s need for housing while also possibly bringing a long-coveted supermarket chain to the area moved a step closer to reality last week.
In a 5-0 vote, the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County approved on March 20 a rezoning expected to bring a 216-unit apartment complex and, presumably, Bowling Green’s first Publix supermarket to a 30-acre site at the intersection of Nashville Road and Dillard Road.
The developer, Cincinnati-based STNL Development LLC, is currently building a 50,325-square-foot Publix in Owensboro. The development plan presented in the rezoning application of STNL and property owner David Tarter of Suits Me 3 LLC calls for a 50,325-square-foot building to be the anchor of the commercial half of the 6698 Nashville Road property.
Publix, a Florida-based, employee-owned chain known for its deli and bakery offerings, has been making inroads into Kentucky as part of its northward expansion. A Fortune 500 company, it now operates 1,391 store locations across eight states in the Southeast.
In addition to the Owensboro store, Publix has either opened or announced plans for stores in Louisville, Lexington, Elizabethtown, Walton, and the northern Kentucky region.
No official announcement has been made about a Bowling Green store, but the chain has long been rumored to be scouting out locations in Bowling Green and has now apparently found one in a fast-growing part of Warren County.
As attorney Chris Davenport, representing STNL, said during a January hearing on the Future Land Use Map amendment for the property: “The multi-family part is high-end, with a pool and recreation areas. But the jewel of the development is the commercial. The anchor tenant is a Fortune 500 company that provides items that are used daily.”
Despite the attractiveness of bringing a Publix to Bowling Green, the FLUM amendment hearing brought out several residents in the Dillard Road area who questioned the development’s possibly negative impact on traffic and stormwater runoff in an area where a single-family subdivision and an elementary school are being built.
That FLUM amendment changing the designation of the property from mixed use/residential and moderate-density residential to commercial and high-density residential passed 8-2, but last week’s rezoning from agriculture to highway business and multi-family residential won unanimous approval from the commission’s county and city of Bowling Green appointees present.
The approved development plan calls for improving the narrow Dillard Road “to commercial standards” from Nashville Road to the multi-family entrance.
Plans submitted with the rezoning application show a nine-building, 216-unit apartment complex that includes a community swimming pool and other amenities in the multi-family portion. The highway business portion includes three outparcels in addition to the 50,325-square-foot anchor building.
The Nashville Road development was joined by four other residential projects approved at the March 20 meeting.
Bristow Development 2024 LLC, headed by Rodney Rogers, won approval for rezoning 36.3 acres at 6067 Louisville Road from multi-family residential and general business to multi-family and highway business in order to build a 520-unit apartment complex and a two-story commercial structure on the property that is near Bristow Elementary School.
Handy Homes LLC, headed by Jeff Anderson, was approved for rezoning from agriculture to residential estate 9.6 acres located at the northwest corner of Mt. Olivet Road and Ralph A. Young Road in order to create nine building lots.
Anderson’s development plan calls for “affordable” homes of at least 1,300 square feet. A couple of residents in the Mt. Olivet Road area expressed concerns about traffic and compatibility with larger homes in the area, but the rezoning passed in a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Tim Graham cast the dissenting vote.
Covington Farms Development LLC, headed by Jared Nugent, Johnston Boyd and John Brewer, won approval for rezoning 0.93 acres along Old Barren River Road near Veterans Memorial Boulevard from agriculture to multi-family residential in order to build a 16-unit apartment complex.
DUO KY LLC, headed by D.B. Allen, and property owners Perry and Sharrye Noel were approved for rezoning 7.25 acres at 6106 Old Scottsville Road and 260 Horace Johnson Road from agriculture and residential estate to single-family residential in order to develop a maximum of 31 single-family residences.
The development will include a mix of attached and detached homes, with no more than 16 being attached (twinhomes). The development plan calls for the attached homes to have at least 1,000 square feet of living space and the detached homes to have at least 1,400 square feet.
All rezonings will be final three weeks after the planning commission vote, unless they are appealed.
