In May of 2006, Food Fair shut its doors for the last time. The small grocery store that had previously been Ray's, has been a vacant building ever since.
Failing for the past year and a half to draw a new retail market for the 22,000 square foot space, the owner has proposed a remodel to allow new kinds of business into the location. However, the current General Plan and zoning require that the center have a grocery store of no small than 15,000 square feet. This is based on a city General Plan requirement that each neighborhood have its own grocery store of at least 15,000 square feet.
The new proposal calls for a much smaller food store. As a result the owner has requested that the city rezone the space from 15,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet.
There are several bases for this request. First, the owner did not believe the space was viable for a grocery store given the population of West Davis, the fact that three stores had been there and failed, and the proximity of the larger Safeway at the Marketplace just a mile and a half down the road on Covell Blvd.
Second, the owner did not believe that he could draw another grocery store into that space. He argued that he tried to do so for the last year and a half. That this issue had come up in November of 2006, but at that time the Planning Commission attempted to have a 7500 square foot store come into that center.
According to city staff, neither the Food Co-op, Nugget, or Trader Joe's had interest in that spot and they therefore advocated for the change.
However, several members of the Planning Commission openly questioned the amount of due diligence on the part of the owner. Katherine Hess, the city's planning director at the very least defended the city's efforts to find a suitable business to take that spot which met the needs of the area.
For the Planning Commission this was a close call. However, there remained a commitment by a narrow majority not to abandon the ideal of a neighborhood grocery store. The majority again by a narrow margin felt that if they approved this change, this would be a permanent change and it could not be undone. In other words, if they built a 3000 square foot store, they would never be able to get a larger grocery store into the site. They felt that all avenues have not been exhausted.
And so by two 4-3 votes, the majority on the planning commission voted first to defeat a substitute motion that would have allowed the 3000 square foot store to come in while at the same time reserving another 3000 feet for another food type store. And then they voted to reject the petition by the property owner. Chair Greg Clumpner, David de la Pena, Rob Hofmann, and Mike Levy comprised the majority. While Terry Whittier, Kris Kordana and Vice-Chair Mark Braly all voted against the motion, favoring to accept the petition.
At this point, the applicant would have to appeal to the city council in order for his proposed project to go forward.
Commentary
As a longtime neighbor of this shopping center, for a long time I enjoyed the convenience of having a neighborhood grocery store, especially as a place where I could walk to, buy a few items without having to deal with traffic or huge crowds and go home. I did not have to set aside 45 minutes to get in my car, drive to Safeway, purchase my products, wait in line, and drive home again.
One of the arguments made in favor of retaining the store is the ideal of recreating the neighborhood grocery store where people really can bike or walk to the store. Having to drive and traverse crowds of people means that I rarely pick up one or two items at Safeway, usually I go and try to save it for one trip and if I forget something then it's a costly mistake in terms of time.
For the right store, run the right way, this does not have to be a dead location. Trader Joe's is a tragic example of this narrow-minded thinking. Moving into the University Mall is frankly not appealling to me. There are traffic issues that I believe would be exacerbated by having a popular store right in the heart of student commutes to campus.
There is the very real issue of the crows at University Mall. Unfortunately, during the fall and winter months that location is a virtual cesspool. It smells horrendous. It is dirty and disgusting. You park your car there for a few minutes and have to get it washed again because it is literally covered in droppings.
If Trader Joe's or a store like that came to the Westlake Shopping Center, it would thrive. They want to look at populations West of Highway 113, why limit themselves. People are not going to drive to that shopping center if they can shop at Safeway. But they might for something that they cannot get at Safeway.
For me this is simply not enough effort and not enough creativity. I see this as a similar issue to many in Davis where the owner does not do due diligence because they have found an easy way out and want the city to accommodate them. I applaud to Planning Commission for not bailing out the owner here.
Like other property owners in Davis, this owner had frankly let the shopping center fall into disrepair. The upkeep was horrendous. The building was not kept up well, the paint was old, it was not attractive. Now that he is trying to attract business in there, he has clearly put in a lot of money and resources to fix it up. They are doing extensive remodels to make the entire shopping center more attractive. I would like to see what happens once that is complete.
I applaud the planning commission for not bailing out the property owner here and allowing him to take the easy way out. Too often we have rewarded property owners for allowing their property to become run down and then we allow them to rebuild beyond the original intent or give them redevelopment money as almost a bail out.
What I would like to see is a concerted effort by the business owner and the city to find an appropriate tenant for that spot and I would like to hold them to that. No bail outs and no more excuses, find a grocer. I think there are grocers that would like that location we just have to try harder to find them. Otherwise we are simply abandoning the neighborhood grocery concept and frankly we are discouraging people from using alternative transportation to do their shopping and I think that's the exact opposite of what we want to do.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
Failing for the past year and a half to draw a new retail market for the 22,000 square foot space, the owner has proposed a remodel to allow new kinds of business into the location. However, the current General Plan and zoning require that the center have a grocery store of no small than 15,000 square feet. This is based on a city General Plan requirement that each neighborhood have its own grocery store of at least 15,000 square feet.
The new proposal calls for a much smaller food store. As a result the owner has requested that the city rezone the space from 15,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet.
There are several bases for this request. First, the owner did not believe the space was viable for a grocery store given the population of West Davis, the fact that three stores had been there and failed, and the proximity of the larger Safeway at the Marketplace just a mile and a half down the road on Covell Blvd.
Second, the owner did not believe that he could draw another grocery store into that space. He argued that he tried to do so for the last year and a half. That this issue had come up in November of 2006, but at that time the Planning Commission attempted to have a 7500 square foot store come into that center.
According to city staff, neither the Food Co-op, Nugget, or Trader Joe's had interest in that spot and they therefore advocated for the change.
However, several members of the Planning Commission openly questioned the amount of due diligence on the part of the owner. Katherine Hess, the city's planning director at the very least defended the city's efforts to find a suitable business to take that spot which met the needs of the area.
For the Planning Commission this was a close call. However, there remained a commitment by a narrow majority not to abandon the ideal of a neighborhood grocery store. The majority again by a narrow margin felt that if they approved this change, this would be a permanent change and it could not be undone. In other words, if they built a 3000 square foot store, they would never be able to get a larger grocery store into the site. They felt that all avenues have not been exhausted.
And so by two 4-3 votes, the majority on the planning commission voted first to defeat a substitute motion that would have allowed the 3000 square foot store to come in while at the same time reserving another 3000 feet for another food type store. And then they voted to reject the petition by the property owner. Chair Greg Clumpner, David de la Pena, Rob Hofmann, and Mike Levy comprised the majority. While Terry Whittier, Kris Kordana and Vice-Chair Mark Braly all voted against the motion, favoring to accept the petition.
At this point, the applicant would have to appeal to the city council in order for his proposed project to go forward.
Commentary
As a longtime neighbor of this shopping center, for a long time I enjoyed the convenience of having a neighborhood grocery store, especially as a place where I could walk to, buy a few items without having to deal with traffic or huge crowds and go home. I did not have to set aside 45 minutes to get in my car, drive to Safeway, purchase my products, wait in line, and drive home again.
One of the arguments made in favor of retaining the store is the ideal of recreating the neighborhood grocery store where people really can bike or walk to the store. Having to drive and traverse crowds of people means that I rarely pick up one or two items at Safeway, usually I go and try to save it for one trip and if I forget something then it's a costly mistake in terms of time.
For the right store, run the right way, this does not have to be a dead location. Trader Joe's is a tragic example of this narrow-minded thinking. Moving into the University Mall is frankly not appealling to me. There are traffic issues that I believe would be exacerbated by having a popular store right in the heart of student commutes to campus.
There is the very real issue of the crows at University Mall. Unfortunately, during the fall and winter months that location is a virtual cesspool. It smells horrendous. It is dirty and disgusting. You park your car there for a few minutes and have to get it washed again because it is literally covered in droppings.
If Trader Joe's or a store like that came to the Westlake Shopping Center, it would thrive. They want to look at populations West of Highway 113, why limit themselves. People are not going to drive to that shopping center if they can shop at Safeway. But they might for something that they cannot get at Safeway.
For me this is simply not enough effort and not enough creativity. I see this as a similar issue to many in Davis where the owner does not do due diligence because they have found an easy way out and want the city to accommodate them. I applaud to Planning Commission for not bailing out the owner here.
Like other property owners in Davis, this owner had frankly let the shopping center fall into disrepair. The upkeep was horrendous. The building was not kept up well, the paint was old, it was not attractive. Now that he is trying to attract business in there, he has clearly put in a lot of money and resources to fix it up. They are doing extensive remodels to make the entire shopping center more attractive. I would like to see what happens once that is complete.
I applaud the planning commission for not bailing out the property owner here and allowing him to take the easy way out. Too often we have rewarded property owners for allowing their property to become run down and then we allow them to rebuild beyond the original intent or give them redevelopment money as almost a bail out.
What I would like to see is a concerted effort by the business owner and the city to find an appropriate tenant for that spot and I would like to hold them to that. No bail outs and no more excuses, find a grocer. I think there are grocers that would like that location we just have to try harder to find them. Otherwise we are simply abandoning the neighborhood grocery concept and frankly we are discouraging people from using alternative transportation to do their shopping and I think that's the exact opposite of what we want to do.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
