A $40 million Kroger Marketplace proposed for 20 acres off Paddock Drive in unincorporated Boone County heads to the Planning Commission's Zone Change/Concept Plan Committee on Aug. 19, with neighbors lined up against it, citing dangerous traffic and a grocery market they say is already saturated.

The project would bring a 99,000-square-foot Kroger grocery store, a 7,565-square-foot wine and spirits shop, a fuel center with seven double-sided gas pumps and a 51,840-square-foot multi-tenant retail building to a long-vacant site between Frogtown Connector Road and Paddock Drive near the Interstate 71/75 interchange. Anne McBride, principal at consulting firm McBride Dale Clairon and Kroger's representative, told the Planning Commission at a July 1 public hearing that construction would cost roughly $40 million and generate about 250 full- and part-time jobs, according to LINK nky.

Paddock Drive residents aren't buying it.

"You'll notice on this street, nobody does 25 (miles per hour). Nobody. I do, but nobody else does it," neighbor Vern Helton told WCPO 9. "It's like a drag strip."

Helton said a Publix that opened less than a mile away in 2025 already serves the neighborhood and questioned why another grocery store is needed. Neighbor Judy Randolph listed existing stores on Route 42, Mall Road, Mount Zion and in Walton before concluding: "We do not need another grocery store." Resident Weston Sanford argued at the July 1 hearing that 11 grocery stores already operate within six miles of Paddock Drive, including Costco and Sam's Club, and that a completed Publix would make 12.

Traffic concerns have derailed at least two previous development proposals on the same site, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier. A June 2026 traffic impact study completed for this proposal calls for added traffic signals and extra turn lanes, though the full details of those improvements have not been made public.

Kroger's application requires three approvals: a zoning map amendment from Employment Planned Development to Commercial Services, a variance eliminating the 10-foot buffer yard along a new internal property line and a special sign district, according to the commission's agenda. The item was deferred from the Aug. 5 business meeting to the Aug. 19 committee session.

McBride cited the Boone County Plan 2045 in her pitch, arguing the county's own long-range plan calls for neighborhood-oriented commercial uses in the Triple Crown area near the site. Kroger has been expanding across Northern Kentucky since Publix entered the market, opening stores in Newport, Union and Edgewood since 2023 and constructing another in Cold Spring.

Kroger and project representatives had not responded to WCPO 9's requests for comment as of the station's Aug. 4 report.

The committee meeting begins at 6 p.m. Aug. 19, at the Boone County Administration Building, 2950 Washington St. in Burlington. Residents can also watch on Spectrum Channel 200 or Altafiber Channel 823.