CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Council adopted a moratorium on issuing new construction permits for the building of dollar stores in the city.
During Wednesday’s meeting, council members said these stores proliferate in low-income neighborhoods and that many of them are unsafe and unsanitary.
The new moratorium will temporarily stop the spread of the stores while the city creates stiffer regulations on how these stores should operate in Cleveland, Council President Kevin Kelley said.
“We need more tools to hold these businesses accountable,” Kelley said.
In the past decade, the number of dollar stores nationwide has ballooned to more than 30,000, prompting many municipalities to either propose or implement moratoriums on new stores in those communities.
According to the websites of Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, there are more than 100 stores in Cleveland and its inner ring suburbs. Critics have claimed the small box retailers cluster in low-income neighborhoods and, in the process, box out small, independently-owned grocery stores.
RELATED: Proposed dollar store moratorium in Cleveland still under administrative review
