A Step Forward for the Burlingame Safeway

Burlingame Safeway plans take big step forward (By Heather Murtagh, Daily Journal)

A new Burlingame Safeway with rooftop parking, second-floor offices and pedestrian paths might be open by spring 2011, according to company officials who outlined last night vague but hopeful plans crafted by five years of community input. The City Council denied an application for a 66,900-square-foot store on the corner of Primrose Road and Howard Avenue more than five years ago and the city organized a series of community planning sessions to determine what might best fit in the prime city location. The proposal will include renovation of the Wells Fargo building on Primrose Road, pedestrian paths, rooftop parking, an enclosed loading dock, open space around the heritage oak tree and retail around Primrose Road with office space on the second floor. In addition, plans will call for the widening of Fox Plaza, which will become a one-way street. Safeway Real Estate Manager Deb Karbo envisioned a proposal going before the Planning Commission this spring with hopes of opening in spring 2011. We are ready to submit an application,? Karbo said. We believe we've come up with a plan that meets our original goal of enhancing Burlingame and being financially feasible for Safeway.? The proposal will not include the use of city-owned property. Changes to the overall concept were easy to note. After negotiating the potential use of lots K and L on El Camino Real and Fox Plaza Lane respectively with Safeway officials, City Manager Jim Nantell explained not using city property was the only viable option. This situation raised issues to those who were on the Burlingame Working Group for 18 months. Kathy Schmidt, who represented the neighborhood stakeholder group, felt disappointed and disillusioned with the differences in recommendations created by the group and the decisions described last night. I'm very concerned. It looks like we're throwing out some of the major aspects of this project recommendation,? she said. Those changes bring up new concerns such as the loading dock, safety of walking in the neighborhood and traffic on Howard Avenue. Carl Martin, who represented merchants, agreed and said making Fox Plaza Lane a one-way street will make traffic worse on Howard Avenue and Primrose Road. Resident Charles Voltz was mainly disappointed the negotiations to use city property were not fruitful. Most of the plans scrutinized by the group assumed the use of these properties, he said. The plan that's before you is a variation of one plan that received very little attention by the group and now is the main, really the only, alternative,? he said. Since Burlingame and Safeway could not find a way to maintain the current level of parking and ensure the city retained real estate of equal value, the use of the lots was not viable, Nantell explained. Basically, it came down to allowing the loading dock on city land which would drop the land value, he said. From here, Safeway will turn in an application which will go to the Burlingame Planning Commission. Getting to a new store alternative took quite some time. A February 2004 rejection of a 66,900-square-foot building with a new store and a Walgreens and a Wells Fargo inside spurred the public planning method called the Burlingame Process? in February 2007. Months of meetings with representatives from stakeholder groups like merchants, property owners and citizens sharing their desires for the site at Howard Avenue and Primrose Road resulted in the conceptual options brought before the City Council and Planning Commission in August.

*** The "Burlingame Process" - hmmmmm! As mentioned above, the Group spent hundreds of hours on plans using the City parking lots and discussions about the loading dock being at the back of the building and widening Fox Plaza Lane into a more pedestrian walk through. Great to see that the retail will wrap around from Primrose to Howard and hopefully start the process of an improved Howard Avenue.

- Written by Fiona

Comments

Perfect is the enemy of "good enough" in a lot of cases. This is SO much better than the original plan that I'll even let Fred lead in the next dance!

John Horgan: Where's the new Safeway?
By John Horgan, San Mateo County Times

Has it crossed anyone else's mind that the interminable process to build a new Safeway in downtown Burlingame has dragged on longer than it took the U.S. to help win World War II?

Yes, that's a fact. Not that any and all parties involved in the current Safeway negotiations even remotely resemble the likes of Churchill, Roosevelt or Ike.

That's not the point. It's just that one wonders if that proposed replacement megastore will ever actually see the light of day.

There was some hope last week of a settlement of sorts. But optimism in this regard has been dashed before.

We'll believe it when we see it. After all, this laborious back-and-forth has gone on for five years and counting.

***

On the Churchillian mode, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill"

So net of the Walgreens space, how much smaller is the current proposal compared to the original? When I read this, it does not feel like compromise. Safeway seems to have said take your parking and we'll build what ever we want. What did the working group accomplish?