Stop Safeway On Solano

Upcoming meeting and new plan

Nancy Brandt — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:32:49 +0000

I hope as many folks as possible will attend the meeting and see what’s in the works. By now, much of our energy has dissipated, but the problem isn’t going to go away.

To illustrate, over the past two weeks, on at least four occasions, at around 6:00 pm, a giant Safeway 18-wheeler drove up Curtis Street from Marin to access the parking lot. I suspect these aren’t the only incidents, but I’m not always in the front of my house to see it. Both Bettina Fox and I notified Anne Hersch, the Albany point person. The other day I was able to get outside with my handy phone and take photos. On that day, the truck had the street completely blocked for several minutes. Cars traveling in either other n any Environmental Impact Report.

Wow, it’s 5:30 pm, April 13, and I’m in my office at the back of my property. I just heard the truck (you can’t miss it) and went to check. Sure enough, it was driving up Curtis, turning onto Solano.

Please note anything you see, with dates and times.

Community Meeting April 18

peter — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:49:08 +0000

Safeway has scheduled a community meeting for April 18 at 8 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, and will resubmit their plans to the city on April 19. Given the short timeframe between those two activities it doesn’t sound like the purpose of the meeting will be to gain community feedback or input, but it still may be worth attending to get an advance idea of what they will be proposing. My guess is that this will primarily be a marketing meeting, with Safeway attempting to elicit support and collect signatures.

Potential Meeting in April

peter — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:46:38 +0000

It’s been pretty quiet, both on this blog and on the city’s planning site. Our last update was back in 2010 and the last update from the city’s page was June 2011. We’ve received word that the extended silence may be broken and Safeway has plans to move forward with a new design and possibly a new architecture firm. Right now the word is that the next meeting may be in April. If you’re interested in joining the discussion or staying abreast of updates, feel free to join the mailing list.

Traffic and Safety Commission Agenda Available

peter — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:56:21 +0000

The agenda for the July 22 Traffic & Safety Commission meeting has been posted on the city website. Also available is the staff report on the city’s Safeway Store major projects page (attachements referenced in the staff report are on the major projects page).

For vehicle circulation, Safeway proposes three options:

Option A: Vehicle access for the underground parking garage well down Curtis and Neilson and across from residences (as per previous designs), no Solano access. Truck access would be via a loading dock high up on Neilson.

Option B: Vehicle access well down Curtis and Neilson, no Solano access. Truck access would be via a loading dock located on Solano Ave.

Option B-1: Truck access via a loading dock located on Solano. There would also be a vehicle access ramp on Solano adjacent to the loading dock, however there would still be vehicle access on Curtis and Neilson and these access points would be south of the existing parking lot access cuts.

Unfortunately the city engineer has thrown his support behind proposal A, which makes it all the more important that we emphasize how detrimental this proposal is to the neighborhood. Even option B-1 could use some improvement — the driveways on Curtis/Neilson need to either be removed, or moved north (towards Solano) to their existing locations.

Important Meetings

peter — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:12:21 +0000

There are two important meetings coming up, both of which will be held at City Hall. The first is a hearing of the Traffic and Safety Commission on Thursday, July 22 at 7 p.m. At the time of this post an agenda is not available on the City website, but we know the Safeway project will be discussed. The purpose of this session is to “review auto and truck circulation plans” associated with the Safeway application. To provide feedback, send an email to Aleida Andrino-Chavez at achavez@albanyca.org, copy Jeff Bond at jbond@albanyca.org. As a reminder, please keep your emails on topic (i.e., the Traffic Commission should consider that primary access is being switched to a residential street and that the larger store will push major streets like Solano and Marin past capacity, but they don’t care that the building is annoyingly tall).

Second, the Planning and Zoning Commission will have Safeway on its agenda at its Tuesday, July 27 meeting at 7:30 p.m.

Promises, Past and Present

peter — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:49:50 +0000

At the current development meetings, Safeway has made many promises — statements regarding their future behavior, and how they will be a good neighbor. Shown below is a truck violating the Albany Municipal Code by deviating from the prescribed truck route and traveling down Marin Avenue. If neighbors react with skepticism to Safeway’s assurances it’s because we can’t even convince them to follow city ordinances — let alone unwritten promises.

Safeway truck traveling down Marin Ave

Patch.com Article on Safeway

peter — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:56:08 +0000

AOL’s new hyper-local news website, patch.com, has an Albany version and with it an article on the proposed Safeway expansion. Overall I think the article does a good job of painting the various issues surrounding this project. It’s worth noting, however, that Allen Cain of the Solano Avenue Assocation continues to make misleading statements regarding support for this project from Solano Avenue businesses:

He also said 250 of the entire association’s members have not expressed any opposition to the plan, although some have shared concerns over Safeway’s “mega store.”

This comes at the end of an article that quotes several Solano Avenue business owners as being strongly opposed to the plan, which makes you wonder what’s going on. However, as we discussed below Mr. Cain’s statement is made based on a postcard mailing the avenue association sent out, to which they received only four replies.

Article On Safeway Development

peter — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:17:39 +0000

For those looking for a summary of the project, Albany Today has a nice piece that provides a good overview. Here’s the lede:

Safeway Inc. has tentative plans to tear down its Albany store and reconstruct one twice the size with a parking lot underneath the building, according to an application to the Albany Planning and Zoning Commission.

Does the Solano Ave Association Support Safeway’s Expansion?

peter — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:19:59 +0000

The answer is an unequivocal yes. The issue of whether Solano Businesses support Safeway’s expansion, however, is less clear. Allen Cain, executive director of the Solano Avenue Association, wrote a May 26 letter to the Planning Commission stating:

We acknowledge the fact that there are neighbors in the immediate vicinity that have concerns; we have polled the Solano Avenue Association membership (now at almost 250) and as of this writing we are not aware of any opposition [from anyone] to the proposed expansion.

This deliberately misleading statement was designed to give the impression of broad support for the Safeway expansion. Fortunately during the June 3 study session it was revealed that only four members responded to the poll. In fact, the following businesses have written letters to the planning commission opposing the new development in its current form:

Matsu, 1519 Solano (Betty Yu)
William Moore DDS, 1396 Solano
Gathering Tribes, 1412 Solano (Pennie Opal Plant)

The bottom line is that many local businesses understand a design that incorporating inadequate parking, that includes specialty stores designed to cannibalize neighborhood businesses, and that is of a size unfit for a low density neighborhood is not a design that is good for the Cities of Albany or Berkeley.

A Trashy Neighbor

peter — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:35:33 +0000

At the June 3 meeting several neighbors brought up the point that Safeway has been a poor steward of its existing property, frequently allowing trash and other eyesores to accumulate. If you thought that such a high profile airing of its dirty laundry would encourage the store to clean up its property, you would have thought wrong. The picture below was just taken today:

Trash accumulation on Safeway property

This trash heap was present for several weeks prior to the June 3 meeting, and almost a week later continues to be an urban eyesore. The point here is that even under the spotlight Safeway has remained steadfast in its refusal to adequately maintain its property. A larger footprint, with underground parking no less, means more opportunities for the property to fall into disrepair.