A major national department store chain plans to build a store in Florence's newest retail development.

Tonight, the Florence County/Municipal Planning Commission will hear a request from the owners of The Plaza at Magnolia on Radio Drive to change its Planned Development District, which would allow Kohl's to build a new store there.

The Plaza at Magnolia is the location of a new Home Depot, which opened this month, and the Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants, which will open soon.

"The original PDD plans called for three big-box retailers," said Reynolds Williams, a Florence attorney representing Preit-Rubin, the owner of the shopping center. "The change we're requesting is to make it two retailers, because Kohl's is a little bigger retailer than what had originally planned."

The change must be approved by the planning commission and Florence City Council before Kohl's can build.

The new Florence store is part of an aggressive expansion plan Kohl's began in 2001. The chain plans to have 1,232 stores open across the nation by 2010, according to the company's 2005 annual shareholders report.

At the end of 2005, Kohl's had 732 stores in 41 states. The company also plans to open a new distribution center in Macon, Ga., to support its growth in the Southeast.

With headquarters in Menomonee Falls, Wis., Kohl's was founded by the Kohl family of Milwaukee in 1962. The chain became a publicly traded company in 1992. Net sales in 2005 were $13.4 billion.

The Plaza at Magnolia has changed the landscape and the traffic patterns in the area around Florence Civic Center. In addition to the new shopping center, the area is home to several new hotels and a multiplex movie theater, all of which add to the number of cars on Radio Drive.

Adding a popular big-box department store is only going to add to the number of cars that travel the already busy road, but steps are being taken to alleviate the congestion.

Radio Drive is being widened to accommodate the added traffic. New turn lanes going into the shopping center will help traffic flow better. Traffic signals planned at the intersection of Hospitality Boulevard and Woody Jones Boulevard also are expected to help control the congestion.

But one of the biggest traffic headaches in Florence is the intersection of Dunbarton and Radio drives. SCDOT plans to create a raised median at the intersection to prevent drivers from turning from Radio Drive onto Dunbarton Drive. Instead, to get to the Wal-Mart shopping center, motorists will have to continue on Radio Drive to Hospitality Boulevard, turn left, and then take a left on Mathers Drive.