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An informal agreement has been reached between ALDI grocery store and Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church negotiators on plans to locate a store in Alcoa.

ALDI wants to purchase the old 911 Center building and erect a 16,590-square-foot discount grocery store on the 2.06-acre site near the corner of the U.S. 129 Bypass and Louisville Road.

Access to the site is shared with the church, and ALDI trucks would not be able to enter the site without getting on church property.

Tom Witt, chairman of the church Finance Committee, said negotiations involved installing a new lane into the church driveway.

The plan is to have one lane going into the site and two going out. A third lane will be added to the right of the current exit that will allow drivers to turn right.

Witt said, with the current traffic pattern, it takes 30 minutes to empty the church lot on Sunday after services.

The church will have to give up some property, but the agreement will give it better access to Louisville Road.

"The attorneys are currently drafting the agreement," Witt said.

Until the agreement is signed and the Catholic Diocese in Knoxville, owner of the church property, signs off on it, the church stands against the proposal, he said.

At an earlier meeting, Witt expressed the church's concerns with the traffic ALDI will generate.

"The church has over 400 children and may sometime in the future tear down the rectory and build a school. Having all those trucks go by is a safety issue," he said at a May meeting of Alcoa Planning Commission.

Witt also said that in 2000, when the church moved to the present location, it had 450 families. Nine years later it has 1,000 families with expectations of 1,500 in another nine years.

To address safety issues, ALDI already agreed that trucks would limit making deliveries to between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

ALDI has agreed to pay $1.5 million for the property, but the purchase is contingent on the city rezoning the property from Institutional to Commercial and an agreement being worked out on the traffic.

Tuesday night, Alcoa City Commission approved on second and final reading amending the land use plan to show the property as Commercial.

Jesse Anesi, director of real estate for ALDI, said Alcoa will consider the ALDI rezoning on second reading on Aug. 11 and he expects to close on the property later that month if the rezoning is approved.

The 911 Center than has one month to vacate the property after closing.

Anesi said he expects to open the store next summer.

ALDI has more than 1,000 stores in over 30 states.