Westlake Grocery Deal in Doubt As Owner Allegedly Reneges on Handshake Deal

In an interview with the Vanguard, the Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries (DANG) say they thought they had a deal. Consultants for Farrokh Hosseinyoun, the majority owner of the Westlake Plaza Shopping Center on Lake Boulevard in West Davis had found a suitor for the Westlake Plaza's empty grocery store spot.

Enter the Delano Family, owners of eight Bay Area Grocery stores bearing the same name. They operate Delano's Markets in San Francisco, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Fairfax and Novato, many of them very upscale in appearance. Adding to the intrigue is the versatility of their product and the vast experience of the Delanos in the grocery business and their genuine interest in coming to Davis and Westlake Plaza.

The principle owner of the Delano's Markets, an independent family owned chain, is Harley Delano, 72, who has been in the grocery business for 55 years. He previously was the president of several food store chains such as Cala & Bell Food Stores in San Francisco as well as a divisional president to Kroger's and Lucky's store chains and he has sat on the board of directors of a number of other grocery stores. His son and co-owner, Dennis Delano has been in the grocery business for more than 30 years. Harley is the CEO and Dennis is the President/COO of their family run business with other family members actively involved in the day to day operations.

They possess the rare ability to create custom grocery stores that are neatly tailored to the clientele in the specific neighborhoods and communities in which they operate. In Davis, the Delano's were looking at opening a specialty store with an upscale appearance and emphasis on organic and other natural foods. In other markets, their stores have as many as 198 organic items.

Dang Board Member Carolyn Hinshaw was quoted on the DANG website as being impressed with what she saw during a January 7, 2009 tour of the Delano's Bay Area stores.

"My impressions were immediately favorable. I feel that Delano's would be a very good fit for West Davis and that it is a business that the community and the City should get behind and support."

The Westlake Plaza store site is zoned for a minimum of 15,000 square feet of grocery store space. However, the Delanos wanted less space and DANG believed that they could have a good store at 11,000 square feet. The remaining space would have presumably gone to other retail.

DANG was willing and excited to accept a temporary zoning change to allow a grocer such as Delano's Markets to operate an 11,000 square foot store, hoping that the remainder of the 23,000 square foot footprint would be filled with coffee shops, and other businesses whose core activities centered around food.

It was at this point, that the Delanos and DANG began to run into obstacles, many of these of the owner's own doing.

Previously, when Food Faire left Westlake Plaza, now nearly three years ago, Mr. Hosseinyoun and and his minority partner, Jim Barcewski, had gutted and stripped the entire grocery store building leaving it essentially a shell of its former self. They filled in the cargo bay rendering the receiving door to the rear of the store useless. They tore out the insides of the store such as the interior walls, the rest rooms, the floors, air conditioning ducts, insulation, and other grocery store infrastructure. As a result, there is a huge cost of tenant improvements that the landlord must do to repair and restore the building back to a usable state prior to leasing the property to a new grocery store tenant. DANG estimates that it may take up to well over $1 million or more to return the gutted former store back into an operational grocery store.

There have been serious questions raised by the neighbors about whether the property owners even wanted to rent this space as a food market in keeping with the City's Ordinance which requires a minimum 15,000 square foot grocery store at the shopping center. Apparently, Mr. Hosseinyoun and Mr. Barcewski made the location as unappetizing as possible and then lobbied City Staff and the Planning Commission to reduce the zoning requirements down to 3,000 square feet. This is basically the size of the Circle K store which is little more than two blocks down the street from Westlake Plaza. DANG and other neighbors want a full service and fully operational grocery store and the 3,000 square feet proposal does not cut it. Fortunately for them, the Planning Commission agreed and denied the application.

However, since then Mr. Hosseinyoun has pledged to bring a grocery store to Westlake. He has put money into the property, finally making long overdue repairs and upgrading the site's exterior appearance.

It was back in September 2008 that the Delanos first expressed an interest in bringing their store to Davis. They estimated they needed financing of between $750,000 and $800,000 to make the deal work. This funding would be used to purchase the needed equipment, fixtures, coolers, software and electronics, cash registers which is usually borne by the grocery store operator who becomes the tenant.

Mr. Hosseinyoun even offered to loan them $250,000 to help close the gap. At that point they needed another $500,000 to $600,000 in additional funding and they began their search for a lender.

DANG worked with the Delanos and had them talk to First Northern Bank, but according to the members of DANG, they are not sure what happened. First Northern Bank backed out, DANG suspects because Mr. Hosseinyoun decided he either could not or would not continue with his commitment to provide $250,000 in capital to the Delanos. Once that offer came off the table, First Northern took a different view at the ability to finance the Delanos.

This was extremely frustrating, needless to say, to DANG. In addition to opening up a market, the Delanos were ready to move their cooperate office to Davis leasing additional space at Westlake Plaza to do so. The Delanos would have hired 30 to 40 people to work in the Davis store.

This has driven a wedge between DANG and the owners of Westlake. DANG suspected that perhaps Mr. Hosseinyoun got cold feet because the project was becoming too close to reality. Mr. Hosseinyoun claims, according to DANG, that the downturn of the economy was causing his funds to dry up or that he feared they would dry up. DANG seems skeptical of the claim.

DANG has let Mr. Hosseinyoun know that he needs to step up to the plate or he needs to find another lender. At this point Mr. Hosseinyoun is claiming that it is DANG's responsibility to find financing.

These events have caused DANG to step back from their willingness to partner with Mr. Hosseinyoun. They no longer feel they can trust him.

On February 6, 2009, they fired off a letter to the Mr. Hosseinyoun, copying members of the Davis City Council as well as the Vanguard.

"DANG is aware of the discussions that have taken place at your meeting last Thursday with both First Northern Bank and the Delanos. We were surprised to hear about this new "residential" component scenario, and are currently taking no position on the issue other than to acknowledge the fact that this distracts from our number one priority of securing a good grocer/anchor tenant for Westlake Plaza, in a timely manner.

We were disappointed to hear that you and or FNB did not offer any realistic financing solution for the Delanos. And in fact your having withdrawn your $250K loan offer to the Delanos, had cooled FNB's interest in financing the balance necessary to bring the Delano’s Market to Westlake. We are also aware that financing the entire $750-800K needed by the Delanos, is well within your means.

DANG has been in recent contact with the Delanos to ascertain as to whether or not they are still interested in pursuing their "Westlake Project". At this point they still are . . . and so is DANG! They have their caveats . . . and so does DANG!"

Among the Delanos caveats is that they will not encumber their personal residences or property in order to secure a loan or a line of credit.

DANG's Caveats include the following:

"1)- That the Delanos total financing needs of up to $800K are met by you, either through a direct loan (or line of credit) from your resources for the full sum, or your guarantees in conjunction with a lender of your choice.
2)- That the Delano grocery project is given your first priority, with the goal of having the store open by September 1, 2009 to take advantage of UCD student arrivals and the 4th Quarter Holiday sales.
3)- That the current retailers and restaurants continue to be given rent reductions so they can try to survive while the anchor tenant is being restored to the property.
4)- That any plan to subdivide, residential rezone, and redevelop the property be delayed until after the Delano's grocery is open, as this process will be too lengthy for the Delanos or your current retail tenants.
5)- That the current total square footage of retailers and restaurants is secured in any future redevelopment so as to maintain critical visitor traffic."

They conclude:

"DANG wants to be assured that the above caveats are met, and that a grocery store opens soon. At the opening of a new neighborhood grocery store, DANG will fully support reducing the zoning grocery requirement of 15,000 sq ft down to the 11,000 sq ft requested by Delanos. We will not support reduction of the 15,000 sq ft requirement prior to the store opening, unless we can agree to create a legal mechanism that ensures complete and acceptable performance."

In response, Mr. Hosseinyoun asked the members of DANG and the community to come up with the difference.

"I urge you, the community, to come up with the difference in order to make this deal happen."

DANG responded:

When your $250,000 commitment was hastily withdrawn from the deal it did 'SHOCK' everyone and appears to have undermined the confidence of the DeLano's, DANG Board, First Northern Bank and probably the City of Davis. As a result, DANG's good faith efforts to help you recruit a grocer, approach the city, other financial institutions and the West Davis community on your behalf are now suspended.

Based on your recent action and on your history with us and the community, DANG is not willing to accept your suggestion for us to take on the additional responsibility of finding financing for your project, only to have you torpedo it again! When you find a solution for the financing we really hope the DeLanos are still interested! Until then DANG will keep the community activated, and will keep pressure on the City to maintain the current zoning restrictions and to enforce City code compliance on the property.

DANG board members also expressed frustration at the city of Davis. The impact of this vacancy is taking a terrible toll on the other businesses in the shopping center. A large number of the retailers are barely hanging on, and holding out in hopes that a deal can be reached.

But thus far the city is doing little to nothing. They simply have not taken an active role in trying to bring a grocer to this location.

Apparently the property owners still have a pending appeal of the Planning Commission's decision which is still listed on the City Council's long range calendar. Moreover, as DANG pointed out, the City has never enforced a number of code violations. They put a notice for instance to repair the loading dock. It was a two week notice given more than two years ago. It has not been repaired. The broken window in the front of the building which has been there for years is also a code violation that has never been enforced by the City.

Asked what is going to happen next Eric Nelson, one of the members of DANG declared, "we're going to wait, keep our powder dry and our guns loaded."

Russ Snyder, another DANG member was more optimistic. He believes that they have exploded the myth that a market cannot do well in this location. Here is a very experienced grocer who is confident that a store can be run there. There is no question in their minds. The Delanos are willing to put money and their reputation on the line.

Moreover, Russ Snyder suggested that the center's landlord's decision to gut the location has created a financial liability that will make it difficult and expensive to get the location back in shape to house a grocer.

But most of all he feels like they are close. In a meeting with DANG, Mr. Hosseinyoun said that he is committed to having a grocer at this location. But if he's indeed committed, he needs to make the investment. Everyone agrees the Delano's Markets would be a great fit and successful. So from that standpoint it would seem logical to make this deal.

Eric Nelson also pointed out that the Delanos are just one of several grocers who had the same feeling.

DANG member David Thompson suggested that there is not much they can do at this point. They tried to put as much pressure as they could during the last month to encourage everyone (the property owner, the Delanos and the bank) to close the deal. They can't really do anymore than they have done. Mr. Hosseinyoun seems willing to sit with an empty food market and an empty shopping center.

Eric Nelson speculated that perhaps they will sell the property to someone who would actually care enough to get a grocer because he feels it is obvious that Mr. Hosseinyoun does not.

David Thompson added that DANG was willing to accept an 11,000 square foot store as long as there was an actual grocer who had the qualities they were looking for and the services people needed.

It is DANG's position that they are not going to agree to zoning changes generically, the only leverage they have to get their West Davis neighborhood a real grocery store is the current zoning.

David Thompson also expressed concern about what will happen to West Davis if it does not have a grocery store. Right now he is concerned also about the future of Emerson Jr. High School. If people have no grocery store or school it will be a tremendous hit to West Davis.

As Russ Snyder put it, it is about a community where people come together and can interact rather than a place where a bunch of people come and sleep.

Right now it is a community that has been missing a grocery store for nearly three years, it is a large number of businesses in the shopping center in deep fiscal jeopardy, and it is a community group that has grown tired of being given false promises and broken handshake deals.

If there is to be a grocery store that moves into Westlake, it needs to happen soon for the sake of this community, this neighborhood, and the fiscal and financial health of the city. It is high time that city staff start taking as much of an interest in this shopping center as they have taken in trying to insure that Trader Joe's and Target come to Davis.

---David M. Greenwald reporting

Davis DANG on Vanguard Radio Talk About the Prospects for a New Grocer in West Davis

On Wednesday night, on KDRT 95.7 FM, Vanguard Radio had on three members from the group DANG--Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Grocers--Eric Nelson, Russ Snyder, and Katherine West.

Click here to listen to the entire interview: Radio Interview

One of the points they made is that there is a perception that this is a bad location for a grocery store. What they believe has been shown over time is that poorly run stores will not do well in this location. They argue for instance that Farmtown Market did exceedingly well in this location and that the only reason that it left was that the owner, the original owner of the plaza, wanted to get out of the grocer business. He had only gotten into the business to begin with due to the requirements for a grocery store. But it was well run and profitable.

Next came Ray's Market. Ray's Market also did well there but there were logistical problems due to the fact it was Oregon-based and the southern-most Ray's Market location. Toward the end, the Ray's Market did poorly but that in part because of lack of upkeep of the store.

Even Food Fair initially turned a profit but quickly lost money when they never put money or resources into the store. Food shelves were rarely re-stocked and people had no good reason to go there.

Because of the smaller size, what is needed is a store that can cater to people purchasing a meal or two at the store. Which suggests some specialty items but also just as importantly a wide-berth of items so that people can do all of their shopping for that meal at one store.

It is an interesting discussion and worth listening to.

They could not divulge the grocers, but apparently there are several that have expressed a realistic interest in the spot in the last month or two. They seem very optimistic that this spot will be filled and that if it is a well-run store it will succeed.

DANG maintains an active website with a load of information. I have already put the link on the side bar, but click here for more information about DANG, their activities, and how you can get involved.

The Trader Joe's Conundrum for Davis

Over the weekend the Davis Enterprise reported that the deal between Trader Joe's and Radiological Associates of Sacramento (RAS) had fallen apart. The deal was in place whereby RAS would vacate their current premises in the University Mall so that Trader Joe's could occupy that spot.

Now those negotiations have fallen apart.

According to the Enterprise:

'It's not going to happen,' said RAS attorney Steve Boutin. 'We've been working hard to make this a win-win for the city. There's not much for us to respond to, because they've (Centro) just said no. What we're going to do is urge them to give this another thought, sign the agreement we've all negotiated.'

Boutin said that he, RAS representatives, Centro representatives and Davis Mayor Ruth Asmundson sat down together in October and hammered out a deal that everyone agreed on.

But last week, Boutin received an e-mail from Centro that said the deal was off.

'We got a letter out of the blue in which we got cold-cocked by Centro,' Boutin said. 'They very simply said the deal was no longer feasible. They didn't provide reasons or specifics, other than to say they were afraid of overriding market conditions.'

Part of the problem according to the article is that Centro may be having difficulty getting financing given the economy.

But this is only the beginning of the story.

The excerpt from the article quoted above indicates that RAS representatives, Centro representatives, and the Davis Mayor Ruth Asmundson met together in October to hammer out a deal. However, according to the Vanguard's sources, the city council never authorized the Mayor do this or even was informed that the Mayor would be doing this. The issue was never discussed at the council and the council never authorized any sort of negotiations.

Meanwhile the organization, DANG! (Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries) is not happy either.

On November 19, 2008, they sent a letter to the Davis City Council and City Manager Bill Emlen.

"We have watched with great interest the reports that Trader Joe’s may locate at University Mall, provided that Radiological Associates of Sacramento (RAS) relocates to a location in West Davis. Further, we hear that the City of Davis is playing a role in facilitating this transaction possibly through providing various financial incentives to any or all of the four parties.

This alarming turn of events, if true, causes us great concern because it would mean that the city is assisting a very successful international corporation to locate in a part of town that is not in need of economic assistance. On the other hand, our distressed
shopping center in West Davis –which is in dire need of help from the city –continues to be ignored.

If incentives are being provided, we request that you state specifically what assistance, if any, the city is providing to facilitate the Trader Joe’s / University Mall / RAS transaction. And if the city is indeed helping, we further state that the city should provide a comparable level of support to DANG’s efforts to secure a market tenant in West Davis. As we are striving to find a neighborhood market tenant we'd like to add those possible city actions to our list of incentives for them to open up in Westlake Plaza."

Community Development Director Katherine Hess told the Vanguard that there is no financial arrangement with Trader Joe's. However, she later clarified that point understanding that the incentives that DANG refers to in their letter are a reduction in parking requirements. She suggested that the city would be open to doing the same at Westlake if that would make a difference.

However, this misses the point. According to the traffic and parking analysis, the building of Trader Joe's would require a larger number of parking spaces at the University Mall in order to accommodate the increased amount of customers using the facility. However, the expansion of the facility to accommodate Trader Joe's will actually result in a reduced number of parking spaces available. The city is not requiring Trader Joe's or the University Mall to provide for those additional spaces. Instead they are arguing that the parking lot is under utilized at it stands now and that they would simply increase the enforcement against people using the lot who live in adjacent apartment buildings.

My experience in that lot has been that they do enforce those laws. At various points in time when I used the RAK on campus and tried to park at the University Mall parking lot I found a notice on my car warning me that I could be towed if I did similarly in the future.

Moreover, parking is not an issue at Westlake. The parking lot there is underutilized. A new grocery store moving into that location would not need additional parking nor face that parking requirement. Therefore, DANG! has a point that Trader Joe's has gotten a financial incentive to move into the only location in town in which they were willing to move. The University Mall is currently occupied and bustling. The same is not true for either Westlake which has been without a grocery store anchor since May of 2006. East Davis Manor has similarly been without an anchor. The city has bent over backwards to accommodate Trader Joe's and get them to come into an already occupied location. Meanwhile, what has the city done to help Westlake?

Contrary to suggestions, Westlake right now stands a very good chance of finding a grocery store that would be willing to come into that location. The city needs to, especially given the current economic climate, prioritize bringing in businesses to existing vacant spots. Yet the city has to this point done very little to induce new grocers to occupy this empty spot that threatens the rest of the shopping center.

As I have mentioned many times, I have never believed the University Mall is a good fit for Trader Joe's, even without the issue of RAS. The lot there is too small to accommodate the number of cars. During the winter months, the birds are problematic with their excessive numbers and droppings. Finally, the area of Russell Blvd between Anderson and Sycamore is one of the most congested in Davis. You have one of the two major east-west arterials linking up with a major north-south connector. You have the university traffic coming into town and going onto the west side of campus. You have the major bike traffic from Sycamore. Now you want to put a market that is going to attract a huge number of customers from across the city to a location that is already congested? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Trader Joe's has taken an arrogant position that they will only move into that location. That also doesn't make a lot of sense. They seem not to understand that Davis residents would go to wherever the Trader Joe's was located. In fact, given traffic congestion at that location, it may do better in other places.

Despite the bleak tone of the article in the Enterprise, it still seems likely that some deal will eventually be reached, but the economic situation is one well worth watching as Davis looks to find other business and commercial suitors in the next few years.

---David M. Greenwald reporting

Davis City Council's Annual Goals

The Davis City Council began discussion on their annual goals this past Tuesday. At some point when the discussion moves further along, we can talk those goals. In the meantime, it seems that an interesting discussion may be what people in the community want to see done in the next year.

The better discussion here would be sticking to realistic goals, for example, building Covell Village in the next year is not really practical, however, approving a given housing development might be.

Since it is my blog, I will go first and name five goals I have.

I have numbered these goals for the sake of expediency. As I typed out five, I realized I could easily have written ten. But let us start with five basic goals.

1. Grocery store in West Lake Shopping Center

I will be West Davis Centric for right now. This is really my top goal for the upcoming year. I have lived next to West Lake Shopping Center now for over eight years, unbelievably. Since May of 2006 there has not been a grocery store. Amazingly places like Lamp Post Pizza, the little Mexican place, the Chinese place, and others have not gone out of business, even as West Yost Associates has also moved.

Criticism has to be lobbed at the owner, at least in the past, who first allowed the condition of the location to deteriorate, filled in the cargo bay at the rear of the grocery store, and it is unclear how hard he searched for a grocery store of the approximate size of 15,000 to 26,000 square feet.

A good specialty grocery store could work very well in this location. It turns out there are good amount of smaller chains that specifically design small and middle size grocery stores. We just have to find one to make it work.

There are people right now hard at work trying to find the right store to come into this location. This needs to be a top priority.

2. Road safety at 2nd D / and Pole Line

I put these together. One of the most dangerous locations in Davis is the left turn onto Pole Line in South Davis as you pull out of the Shopping Center. It is like navigating a mine field. First you have a steady stream of downhill traffic from the overpass who are generally driving like it is a thorough fare. Then you need to move quickly onto a suicide lane in the center and merge into heavy traffic. It is easy to miss some in either direction. It is an intersection that either needs a traffic light or needs to be a right turn only. The left turn set up as it is, is a recipe for deadly accidents, and deadly accidents have occurred there.

The intersection at fourth and D is a disaster waiting to happen. The good news is that D street just doesn't have the high volume of traffic. However, there are a few problems with the intersection if you are driving south on D away from Fifth Street. First, it is a two-way stop, meaning you have to stop at Fourth Street, but the traffic on Fourth Street doesn't stop. Some cars do not realize that. Second, because it is a two-way stop, the fact that the view of oncoming westbound traffic is obstructed by parked cars makes it perilous.

Accidents have almost occurred there for two reasons. Either the cars on D do not realize that it is a two-way stop. Or if they do, they can't see the cars coming and almost get hit as they drift out into traffic.

The sad thing is that the solution is simple. Put in a four-way stop. Or more being innovative, put in a round-about. Either way, a simple solution would save a giant pain if you find yourself on D Street heading towards downtown. And during Farmer's Market times, it is not an area that cars do not drive on.

3. Road diet on Fifth street

There are all sorts of problems with Fifth Street between B and L. First, traffic moves way too fast between those areas. Second, you have bikes that do not have a bike lane. Third, you have no turn lanes for people moving off Fifth. Fourth, you have no suicide lanes for cars moving on fifth. The result is that Fifth Street is an accident waiting to happen, and it often happens.

I drive on this stretch all the time, the biggest danger is the car turning onto Fifth Street because they have to wait for the traffic to die down and then they often try to squeeze into a very narrow space. Sometimes they misjudge that space, sometimes they don't see an oncoming car.

Contributing to that problem is of course the speed of traffic moving through there, which is why one proposal is a road diet, that would slow down traffic by narrowing the street to two lanes rather than four. This would cause congestion, which would lead people to avoid the area somewhat, but it would slow down traffic. They could then make turn lanes and suicide lanes to avoid the other problems of turns. It would also free up space for dedicated bike lanes.

This has been a subject of ongoing discussion. The DDBA and the Chamber of Commerce are concerned about the impact of changes to Fifth Street on business going to downtown. Nevertheless, this is an issue that needs to be resolved in a way that addresses safety concerns, bicycle transportation needs, pedestrian cross-concerns while at the same time not harming the downtown. A tough issue, but one that needs to be addressed.

4. Transparency in City Government

Those regulars to the Vanguard understand how heavily our focus looks at open government and transparency. This was an issue that Councilmember Lamar Heystek raised as well and of course we have some ideas.

Last year we raised the issue of the storage of public records. The concern was that the city only stores for instance the recordings of meetings for a few months, passes it on to the library who stores them for two years, but after two years those records are destroyed. So the only record we have of council meetings past two years are the minutes which are by design slim on detail. Thus past conversations and debates are largely lost. The issue was brought up at a joint HMRC-Council meeting this year and the council agreed this was an important issue and they wanted to look into way to store records of this nature.

That is really the beginning of the issue of open government. I would like to see the city pass some sort of sunshine ordinance which recognizes, as other cities do, that governing acts like the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act are minimum standards for open government, rather than the limit for open government.

In my dealings with the city, they have been pretty open to public records requests and willing to work with me for the most part. Unfortunately, the California Public Records Act is one of the weakest open government record acts in the country. That is also a legislative goal as well to strengthen it, but much can be done on this even at a local level.

5. City Council to find working system for council comments

When Mayor Asmundson took over, there was a big concern about her limiting the public comments portion of the agenda. I still think this is somewhat problematic on tough issues, but she does appear somewhat flexible when large crowds come up. To me, you have to stay late to allow members of the public to speak. It does not happen all the time, but when it does, it should be accommodated.

In the meantime, the problem has arisen at the last two meetings when the Mayor has cut off Councilmember Sue Greenwald. Again, I do not agree with limiting time for a councilmember to speak. However, if that is going to occur it needs to occur in a systematic manner. To me, it appears that the Mayor cuts off Councilmember Greenwald quicker than she does other people.

If that is how she wants to run meetings, my recommendation is to announce in advance of an item that each councilmember has a certain amount of time to ask questions and then enforce it across the board. That probably is not the best system to use, but it would avoid some of the current flare ups.

Alright those are five of my council goals for 2009. There are clearly some key ones I missed like vacancies in downtown business, parking in the downtown, transportation, energy efficiency, re-examining the water issue, and much more. I could easily have done ten. I am curious as to what other people want to see.

---David M. Greenwald reporting

Commentary: "Food Miles" Cannot Be Discussed in Isolation From Land Use Policies

Recently in the Davis Enterprise, John Mott-Smith had a provocative piece on the importance of keeping down food miles.

From our perspective there are actually two issues that are important in food miles. First the distance that the food travels to stores. Second, the distance that we travel to stores to get the food.

In arguing for reduction in distance that food is transported, Mr. Mott-Smith writes:

"Generally, locally grown food purchased in season is fresher, more healthful and requires less energy to produce and transport to market, and we should encourage stores and restaurants to provide food that is produced locally."

Second he argued for neighborhood grocery stores:

"How we get to the market to buy the food is also important. One of the best things we can do is walk or bike to the store. Of course, whether we can walk or bike to a store depends on whether there is a food store near where we live.

Not too long ago, there was a food store within a half-mile of every resident in Davis. The trend to larger stores has been one cause of the closure of several of these "neighborhood stores." As the effects of climate change and "peak oil" make themselves felt in our economy and our daily lives, having essential services such as a grocery store accessible to each neighborhood will be an important element in reducing the number and distance of vehicle trips in the community."

Extending his argument out further, what he is really talking about, is having grocery stores that are locally owned and operated and also small and conveniently located within our neighborhoods.

As we have spent much time discussing this year, we have moved away from the neighborhood grocery store model and towards a centralized model with large supermarkets--the two Safeways and the Nugget on East Covell.

Davis Manor, West Lake, and University Mall no longer have their neighborhood grocery stores.

At the same time, a store like Safeway is particularly harmful for the environment and the economy of a place like Davis. They transport all of their food in--this requires large amounts of fossil fuel burning.

And as we have mentioned previously, they take in money from this community and then transport it back to Oakland. The profits go to Oakland. They sit in an Oakland bank. In other words, they suck money out of the community, give a small amount back to their employees, give a small amount back in tax dollars, most of the money leaks out.

This is the argument not only against large national supermarket chains, but against all national chains and big-box stores.

They sound alluring for the consumer offering a broad array of choices and at times better prices (if you catch their items on sale), but in terms of health to the local economy, that health is illusive at best.

Particularly bad, is a store like Target. The city projects a tax revenue of roughly $600,000 from Target. I actually think that's optimistic once you figure in lost revenue and stores going out of business in the core and the cost of public safety.

But the problem with a place like Target from both an environmental and an economic standpoint, is the habits that people will have to undertake to get there, to get merchandise there, to work there, and to purchase products there.

The economic benefits are actually quite limited. The majority of the products sold there will be imported from elsewhere. The money will be sent to their corporate offices. Their employees will largely be imported in from West Sacramento, Woodland, and Dixon. Thus they will use the majority of their money to purchase goods and services out of town. Why? Because they cannot afford to live in Davis on Target wages.

It is nice to have a revenue base in a city, but where business really helps is the multiplier effect. Here's an example. If I live in Davis and open up a business the revenue I make in Davis gets spent by me primarily in Davis. I hire employees, they live in Davis, the money that they earn is then spent on goods and services in Davis primarily. And the money that is spent on goods and services goes to other people who spent their earnings on the same and down the line. In other words, the more money spent in Davis that stays in Davis simply proliferates around the community.

On the other hand, if I spend money and it goes to Oakland or Minneapolis, that does not happen. It does not benefit Davis.

So from an economic perspective, local communities are best off having local business who buy their products locally. From an environmental perspective, we are the same.

This all sounds good but then consumers stick their noses into the argument at this point and tell us that they want to be able to choose from a broad selection and consume the products that they want at a cheap price.

The two responses to that point should be that if you believe we are facing an impending global warming crisis, then you need to change your consumption habits. We will not get the deep cuts in carbon and greenhouse gas emissions without changing our behavior.

Second, everyone talks about how much cheaper big-box stores are than other stores, for the most part that's actually not true. Studies have shown that what actually happens is that big-box stores cherry pick on a few products that are recognizable and charge less. They also have a tendency to charge less when they move into an area, drive out competition, and then adjust to market rate prices.

Everyone talks about how expensive Nugget is. The only difference between Nugget prices and Safeway prices are that Safeway has more frequent sales and they rotate their sales. So if you catch a product on sale, yes it is cheaper, but the base price of Safeway products are as expensive as Nugget. So what generally happens is that consumers will purchase some products on sale but for the most part will buy products that are not on sale and end up spending about the same.

The bottom line is that we have come to accept our market rather than to change it. Just because right now big-box and national chains appear to offer more products at a better price does not mean we are stuck with having to use those environmentally and economically harmful vendors.

At the local level we need to fight to make local business more competitive. That is something that a city council can do. Give local business incentives and benefits that will enable them to be competitive against the national chains.

In the end John Mott-Smith wrote an interesting piece about food miles, but he did not go far enough talking about policies in the city to encourage neighborhood grocery stores. He did not extend those discussion to beyond food. He did not get into the difficult political areas of discussion that will be needed to enact the type of changes he advocates.

In the coming weeks we'll be talking on the Vanguard about the impact of city driven-policies toward the reduction of carbon emissions and one of the areas that we need to focus on is the disconnect between the council's words on climate change and their actions and land use policies.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Commentary: The question of neighborhood grocery stores ought to permeate future growth discussions

In 1999, a key debate in Davis emerged--what the impact of a 40,000 square-foot Nugget at Oak Tree Plaza would produce. Some including Bill Donaldson, Eileen Samitz, and Bill Alexander argued that the production of new and larger grocery stores would doom the 25,000 square-foot neighborhood grocery store which had been the hallmark of the 1987 Davis Gneeral Plan.

As they wrote at the time in an April 18, 1999 article:

"Are we going to abandon our neighborhood center policies, which serve our community both practically and in our very human need for social interaction with our friends and neighbors?"

At the time they were roundly criticized for their opposition to the larger grocery stores, which now dominate the landscape in Davis, at the expense of the neighborhood grocery store.

Gone are the small grocery stores at University Mall, the Davis Manor, and now the Westlake Shopping Center.

Is this simply reactionary alarmism or is there a valid argument to be made that we ought to have a series of smaller, 20 to 25,000 square foot grocery stores serving their specific communities?

Instead of looking back to answer this question, let us look forward. The concept is smart growth. Smart growth looks to more dense, mixed use development, that seeks to reduce traffic and drive time through smart urban design practices.

We see this philosophy at work here in Davis when we talk about densification as opposed to sprawl. The idea is the more tightly compact people reside, the closer they are to the city centers and the less they will have to drive in order to do their shopping, drive to downtown, and go to work. This plan seeks to increase walkability and biking and to reduce the amount that people are forced to drive.

We seem to have the idea of densification down to a tee in our discussions.

As Kevin Wolf, chair of the Housing Element Steering Committee wrote a week and a half ago:

"Among my primary motivations to provide housing for the growing number of students and employees in town is to reduce the regional loss of habitat and prime agricultural land. When growth occurs in Davis, far less habitat and ag land is lost then if that growth is shifted to Woodland, Vacaville, Dixon or the suburbs around Sacramento. Davis has approximately twice the density compared to these areas, which means for every acre developed in Davis, two acres won’t be developed elsewhere."

We understand densification even if we disagree on how much we need to densify. We also understand the need for more energy efficient design.

But another facet of smart growth is mixed-use planning. The reason one needs that is that if you place commercial development within residential development, you can enable people to walk and bike to do the bulk of their shopping. And when it comes to shopping, the most frequent form is food shopping.

However, our grocery store policies are at odds with those of our smart design desires. The more we consolidate shopping in larger, 40,000 square foot grocery stores, the more we have violated this principal. The vast majority of people who shop at the two Safeways and the Nugget on Covell and Poleline, are people who are driving to get their food. As these stores have flourished, many of the neighborhood stores have disappeared.

One of the discussions that arose recently at the planning commission was what to do with Westlake Shopping Center where Ray"s and Food Fair had formerly resided. This is a smaller, 22,000 square foot store that had once served West Davis. Now, West Davis must drive 1.5 to 2 miles to the Safeway on Covell in order to do their shopping. Over the course of a year, that is a lot of additional driving. Meaning the emission of a lot of additional carbon. Hence big stores located in central areas rather than neighborhoods increase our carbon footprint.

But really it is worse than that. During the Target discussion we talked about the impact of big box retail, but one interesting discussion that occurred last year when Stacy Mitchell came to speak was the impact of big box grocery stores.

Let us compare the Co-Op to Safeway. The Co-Op is locally owned and operated. The profits go to those who reside in this community. Food is in part produced locally, particularly the produce. At the end of the day, the money is deposited into the local bank. Safeway on the other hand, has corporate ownership. All profits go to the Oakland corporate office. The money at the end of the day is deposited in a bank in Oakland. The produce and food are all shipped in from out of town. In other words, yes Safeway produces revenue and some tax base but there is a tremendous amount of leakage. The whole operation relies on trucking to import the produce and food and export the money. From a city economic standpoint it is inefficient. From an environmental standpoint is increases the carbon footprint. And the large central local requires the individuals to drive to the store.

The argument here is that policies that produce smaller and more locally owned grocery stores would be better for the local economy and the local environment. But in order to do that we would have to limit the size of grocery stores. Our policies that allowed 40,000 square foot grocery stores to move in have produced undesirable results.

The city and the owner of Westlake appeared ready and willing to actually continue and proliferate those harmful policies but fortunately the planning commission stepped in and at least temporarily delayed it. To Kevin Wolf's credit, he was one of those members of the public who came to the meeting and argued that we needed to hold out for a small grocery store.

If we are truly moving toward with this model of smart design, we cannot simply pick and choose which aspects we like, it has to be an entire package. We need to retain the character of our city by encouraging mixed-use planning and demanding that our city leaders look into ways to allow the neighborhood grocery store to remain competitive against the giant that we have already allowed to move in.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Planning Commission Denies Petition to Put 3000 SF Store at West Lake

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