Safeway - Working Group Meetings

Dates are now confirmed for the Safeway Working Group meetings:

Wednesday, May 2
Wednesday, May 9
Wednesday, June 6
Wednesday, June 13
Thursday, June 21
From 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Public Works Training Room, 1261 N. Carolan Avenue

There are seven stakeholder reps (with one alternate for each) and they include the Chamber, CBB, Downtown Merchants Group, Downtown property owners, adjacent homeowners, previous petitioners and Safeway.

Public comments welcomed during the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes of each meeting.

For more information including feedback form and meeting notes, go to the city website.

- Written by Fiona

Comments

[fred]

Group plotting Safeway's course gets started
Panel's work on Howard Avenue site will span next six months

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

The panel charged with crafting a vision for a new Burlingame Safeway and its Howard Avenue site began its work Wednesday night with its members looking to the future and sharing their redevelopment ideas.

The 14 members of the working group include two representatives from Safeway, residents who live near the site, Burlingame Chamber of Commerce officials and downtown property owners. Members of Citizens for a Better Burlingame, an organization that helped defeat a proposal for a 62,000-square-foot Safeway in May 2004, are also on the panel.

"We want a grocery store. We don't want a Wal-Mart or Target," said Susan Castner-Paine, the Citizens for a Better Burlingame's alternate member. She said she has been shopping at the store for three decades.

Wednesday's meeting was the start of a process expected to take six months. It will be at least two years before Burlingame approves any plans for the site, City Manager Jim Nantell said.

A large store and a mixed-use project are among the ideas being considered.

"We see the benefits of having a multiuse residential, office and retail (site), where there's always people coming and going," said Carl Martin, who represents the downtown business owners.

People who live in the area have mixed feelings about mixed-use, said Kathy Schmidt, who represents those residents. Some residents are concerned about the impacts on parking and the neighborhood, she said.

"We would like to see a new modern Safeway," Schmidt added.

Chamber of Commerce representative Georgette Naylor said a store that makes the nearby downtown more robust economically and expands it toward Howard Avenue would be welcomed.

"We see competition as a good thing because it gives people more choices and it brings more people to the area," she said.

Safeway representative David Bowlby listed easy access, a place where people can meet all their grocery shopping needs and convenient parking as essential for the new store.

Group members also indicated that an attractive building that has better connectivity to the nearby downtown would also be important.

Burlingame resident Danelle Rienks, who spoke before the group started its discussion, said the Safeway's look and feel are a few of the reasons why she does not shop there. She called the store "yucky" and "scary."

"I'm all for a new and better Safeway," Rienks said. "I just think it would be great to have a nice new Safeway."

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For Pete Garrison's sake! Can't somebody help Danelle and get a nice new Safeway built fer cryin' out loud!