Efforts to keep a long-time Rochester Hills grocery appear to be failing.

Wes Malear, Hollywood Markets’ operations director, said company officials want to stay at the current Rochester Hills location. But the company’s lease at the North Hill Plaza Shopping Center, 1495 N Rochester Road, ends Dec. 31.

“This is our home and we are part of the Rochester Hills community and neighborhood families,” he said, adding “so just maybe there is still hope if enough neighbors show support. We have looked in other areas of Rochester and will continue our search, but we have not found another location.”

Meijer has submitted a site plan to add a drive-through pharmacy. Rochester Hills planning commission will host a public hearing on Tuesday evening before voting on the conditional use request. The change would include adding the drive-through on the north side of the building and changing the Tienken Road driveway access for traffic safety.

“The only thing (the commissioners) will weigh in on is the drive-through portion for the pharmacy,” said Nathan Mueller, city spokesman. “The store itself is a permitted use.”

Without the addition of the drive-through, he said, Meijer would not need to get any other approvals from the city, because the site is already approved as a grocery location.

“It’s considered a permitted use,” Mueller said. “Obviously people are welcome to come to the planning commission meeting. I don’t want people to be misled that the planning commission is weighing in on a whole site plan.”

A 20-year Hollywood customer, Sue Evans, told WXYZ-TV she’d heard the store would likely close.

“They’re loyal to the community, they have excellent products, their meat is surpassed by none. When they are loyal to the community, we should be loyal back,” she said, adding that she hopes to see a groundswell of support for Hollywood Markets.

The city cannot compel the shopping center’s owner to extend a lease to a client, nor can it deny a permitted use of a property, he said. Each property must meet state and local building safety codes, which is why Meijer’s plan to add the pharmacy drive-through must be approved by the planning commission.

“Cities and townships have master plans to guide permitted and non-permitted uses,” Mueller said. “That’s basically to prevent something like a big-box store from appearing in a neighborhood.”

The site, which anchors the shopping center, is already approved as a grocery, so the city can’t stop Meijer from inhabiting the space, but can make adjustments to drive-through plans as a special use.

Mueller said Rochester Hills isn’t actively recruiting grocery companies to open in the city, but has at least 15 serving the city’s nearly 76,000 residents and people from nearby communities.

Those 15 include:

• Papa Joe’s, 6900 N. Rochester Road

• Hollywood Markets, 1495 N. Rochester Road

• Kroger, 65 S. Livernois Road

• Fresh Thyme Market, 2025 S. Rochester Road

• Meijer, 3175 S. Rochester Road

• Aditya Groceries, 2947 S. Rochester Road

• Punjab Groceries, 2650 S. Rochester Road

• Target 2887 S. Rochester Road

• Aldi, 1106 S. Rochester Road

• Gordon’s Food Service, 1370 Walton Blvd.

• Meijer, 3610 Marketplace Circle

• Walmart, 2500 S Adams Road

• Whole Foods Market, 2918 Walton Blvd

• Busch’s Fresh Food Market, 3188 Walton Blvd.

• Trader Joe’s, 3044 Walton Blvd.

Another grocery, Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace, is just south of the Rochester Hills city limits at 6835 Rochester Road in Troy and is one of several groceries adjacent to the city.

“We do have a lot of good groceries and people patronize the ones they like,” he said. “Both Papa Joe’s and Hollywood have sustained success over the years at that location.”

He said he appreciates that people are so passionate about where they shop and the relationships they build.

Rochester Hills is far from the only community facing questions about the number of groceries. The Detroit News recently reported that Livonia’s city council is grappling with a second Meijer opening in the city of 92,000.

The Schostak & Brothers’ $60 million plan included a 75,000-square-foot Meijer and 102 apartments on a 16.5-acre site at the corner of Seven Mile and Farmington. The city also has a Kroger, Walmart and Target, with a Whole Foods proposed as part of the redevelopment of the former Comerica campus on Six Mile Road.

Plymouth Township was sued by Southfield-based Redico for opposing the development of a Meijer at the site of the former Detroit House of Corrections.

In Farmington Hills, a decision to create a Meijer at an aging strip mall led to a public outcry that the development would shutter Marvelous Marvin’s Mechanical Museum, a popular arcade. The museum’s owner announced last month that a new location has been identified, with details to be announced in the near future.

The planning commission meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 at city hall, 1000 Rochester Hills Drive in Rochester Hills.