Deja Vu with Leadership

Text from an Examiner article today about Another Town:

MENLO PARK A seven-year discussion about exactly what type, size and configuration of 24-hour supermarket the community needs nears its end tonight as the Menlo Park Planning Commission considers zoning law changes that will allow Safeway to tear down and rebuild its El Camino Real store. Plans for renovating or rebuilding the Safeway have been kicking around Menlo Park's Planning Department since 1998. Since then, the city has held a series of public meetings to vet the project, hired an outside mediator to help ease the concerns of nearby residents and finally prepared the plans for approval by its appointed and elected officials. The final result is a plan that is substantially smaller than the existing store, includes 11,500 square feet of additional retail space and redirects store-bound traffic and delivery trucks from residential roads to El Camino Real. Supporters of the project point to the long planning process as a successful example of business, government and community members working together.

"If you compare this to the same process that happened in Burlingame, the key difference is they got someone involved to mediate," said Melody Pagee, chairwoman of the Planning Commission. In Burlingame, the issue of renovating or rebuilding that city's Safeway has been lingering for about as many years and remains unresolved. Council hopefuls are already campaigning on the topic for November's election.

In Menlo Park, the city ushers the project from the planning phase to construction phase, and public sentiment about the project is largely positive, even among the neighbors who live closest to the store. But as neighbors Bert and Mary Yost say, that was not always the case. "The first meeting they had, it was chaos, but ever since then the city has been real careful and very good," Bert Yost said. "I think forming the committee [of neighbors] was a big help because people felt they had a say in what was going on."

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From the Menlo Park City website (www.menlopark.org/projects/comdev_sdp.htm) -

Safeway is proposing a new 65,748-square-foot store with an attached 11,500-square-foot structure containing retail tenant lease spaces for a project total of 77,248 square feet. The new store will provide outdoor seating and outdoor sales in front of the store. Inside the store, banking, pharmacy, cafe and a deli are proposed. The store would continue to operate 24 hours a day and would continue to sell alcoholic beverages. The project site at 525 El Camino Real. The site is currently developed with a single commercial building of approximately 83,292 square feet. Landscaped area would increase from eight percent to ten percent. The proposed demolition and construction would occur in phases as the Safeway store remains in operation. In addition to the reconstruction of the site, the applicant is proposing to install a left turn pocket for traffic traveling north on El Camino Real to enter the Safeway site directly

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The comparisons between Any Town but Burlingame and our leafy suburb are all there!

- Written by Fiona

Comments

Isn't this that massive structure that used to be another store? I forgot which one. I think Safeway moved into it awhile back. Their project has involved scaling back an already extant massive structure, sort of the opposite of ours.

[james]

I'm not sure what Melody Pagee knows about Burlingame's chain of events, but there appear to be a lot more differences than whether a mediator was hired.

[Rich Grogan]

Burlingame held a mediation session, and Safeway wasn't willing to move off of their tired old plan.