Safeway - Keep on Trucking!

Safeway Working Group gets down to details - Truck access controversy helped quash 2004 redevelopment plans (by Mark Abramson, Daily News)

The group working to redevelop the Safeway site on Howard Avenue in Burlingame took on its first major challenge Wednesday night -- finding a way for delivery trucks to access the property without backing up traffic or interfering with pedestrians.

The site of the 33-year-old store is not very compatible with truck traffic, and being along El Camino Real, a state highway, compounds the problem. Creating a driveway along El Camino Real would require Caltrans' approval, city officials said. "I think Caltrans will look at a traffic study for the overall project," Burlingame Public Works Director Syed Murtuza said. Caltrans will likely consider how much traffic delay a truck turning into the driveway would cause, the alignment of the driveway to the street and other factors, Murtuza said.

Other options would be to put a driveway on Primrose Road or Howard Avenue. Those options would not require Caltrans approval, but were rejected by opponents who helped defeat Safeway's redevelopment plans in 2004, City Manager Jim Nantell said. "It was a very hard issue last time. Everyone pretty much agrees that (a driveway) doesn't belong on Howard or Primrose," Nantell said.

The Safeway Working Group includes representatives from Safeway, residents who live near the store, the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce and downtown property owners and merchants. The grass-roots group Citizens for a Better Burlingame, which helped defeat the earlier plan for a 62,000-square-foot grocery store, is also part of the group.

Redevelopment possibilities for the site include using it only for a Safeway, making it mixed-use commercial and residential, and building a small mall that includes a grocery store and various other retailers. A final proposal could take up to 1 1/2 years to complete and get approved, city officials have said.

"Last night is the first night we had what I call 'creative chaos,' " Candace Hathaway, the consultant the city hired to facilitate the group, said Thursday. Group members shared ideas and worked with a makeshift model to determine how putting the driveway along El Camino Real would work, Hathaway said.

The group will perform similar exercises at its December meetings to evaluate the idea of the driveway on Primrose Road and Howard Avenue. If the El Camino Real option is pursued, the driveway would be created in the southwest corner of the site, just south of Burlingame Avenue. "We want to use as little of the site as possible for trucks," Hathaway said.

Next meetings - 12/12/07 and 12/19/07.

- Written by Fiona

Comments

[fred]

Wouldn't a customer only driveway on El Camino across from Ralston and a customer/truck driveway(s) on Howard make the most sense? That could eliminate a driveway on Primrose. Primrose could be lined with small shops and a pedestrian entrance to Safeway.

I believe currently Safeway trucks come up Peninsula take a right on California and then a left on Howard.

This would allow that to continue since it seems to work fine now. Customer traffic would be broken in two with people either using the El Camino or Howard egresses. Also easy access for pedestrians with not much interfernce with traffic, only the corner of Howard and Primrose. Probably need a traffic light there but I don't think it would be necessary on El Camino.

Mr. Nantell has corrected this on the Burlingame Daily News website:

"Mark one correction - what I said was everyone agreed in the past that the loading dock should not be on Howard and Primrose".