PARIS — Rod Hazard is a businessman.

He operates Betty’s Laundry at 142 Main St. Throughout the week and especially on weekends, his is a front row seat to the traffic congestion along the busy stretch of roadway.

For Hazard, the possibility of a Family Dollar store relocating next to the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead is a bad idea. It has nothing to do with Family Dollar. He reiterates his own business needs, a place requiring adequate parking for his customers.

Interestingly, Hazard’s laundry was once in the same spot where Family Dollar is now, farther south on Main Street.

But while he’s sympathetic to Family Dollar’s concerns, he is a realist when it comes to the possibility of the discounter moving its operations next to such a pristine location as the garden.

“I’m definitely not against Family Dollar being on Main Street,” Hazard recently said in an interview. “They have good prices. I buy from there. It’s just not a good fit.”

The phrase “not a good fit” has become, in many ways, a form of prepared armor for those who oppose the business relocating next to the garden. Many suggest that the bucolic and tranquil nature of the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead would be compromised, should Family Dollar be allowed to build there.

Moreover, many, including Hazard, believe that the low prices of a retailer can’t offset the price to be paid in other areas.

“In general, the whole intersection there is busy enough as it is now,” Hazard said, referring to the point where Western Avenue merges into Main Street. “Traffic basically comes to a stop.”

To be sure, like clockwork, Hazard sees the traffic slowing to a crawl every day around 7:30 a.m., lunchtime, and again at 4 p.m. It happens in front of his business and for long stretches beyond.

Family Dollar is seeking a variance from the Paris Planning Board that would allow large 18-wheelers to pull into the location. The Tampa-based company has received the support of Maurice Restaurant next door, something that has irritated opponents of the new store.

Other nearby businesses did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story. Nearly all of the businesses along Main Street, from fast-food restaurants to ethnic eateries to family-centered establishments, rely on motor vehicle traffic coming in an out of their businesses. Several, such as gas stations and automotive repairs, depend on it.

That traffic has become the sticking point in the entire debate. The large tractor-trailers that would have to navigate into a Family Dollar would not have the same comfort zone they now have at Family Dollar’s current location, a small strip mall set back from Route 26, where they have sufficient room for egress and ingress. Sharper turns and longer waits are anticipated at the proposed site.

Other concerns center on the specific intersection. Freight trains, while not very frequent, do cross the street heading toward Bethel. They can tie up traffic for various lengths of time. With school starting last week, more traffic has been added, with school buses and parents driving their children to and from school.

Many of these concerns were expected to be aired during a public hearing in front of the Planning Board that would have included citizen comments. But the meeting was suddenly postponed when Hunt Acquisitions of Tampa Bay, Fla., informed Town Manager Amy Bernard that it was not prepared to make its presentation. The meeting has not been rescheduled.

It’s not only business people who are apprehensive about the new store coming to the other end of Main Street in Paris. Molly Johnson, soon to be a college student, waited in line Tuesday, Aug. 26, for ice cream, diagonally across from the garden.

“I don’t think it’s a good area (for the new store),” said Johnson, clad in athletic wear. “It’s so crowded already.”

Similar sentiments echo throughout the area. Many believe that to lose the house and trees adjacent to the garden would be the latest — and most penetrating — encroachment on the area’s appeal.

Hazard left no doubt about his thoughts.

“I think it would be a big detraction if the trees were taken down from that area,” he said. He said that anytime an area is able to maintain its greenery, it’s a good thing.

Hazard added, “I just hate to see the greenery taken down at the expense of concrete and pavement.”