Proposed Trader Joe's shopping center in Rincon Valley clears key hurdle

A proposed shopping center that hopes to attract a Trader Joe’s to east Santa Rosa overcame concerns about gridlock and a last-minute critique by a local competitor to pass a key hurdle Thursday.

The city’s Planning Commission peppered the developer of The Shops at Austin Creek with questions about the design and traffic and environmental impacts of the project on the 5-acre former home of Prickett’s Nursery.

A number of neighbors, including the CEO of local grocery chain Oliver’s Markets, also questioned whether the improvements at the intersection of Highway 12 and Calistoga Road were enough to handle the traffic that four new buildings, including a CVS Pharmacy with a drive-thru, would generate.

“It’s a real traffic jam as it is,” nearby resident Nancy Finlay said.

But ultimately the commission, citing traffic studies that concluded additional turn lanes will improve the intersection’s ability to handle the extra cars, supported the plan, approving it on a 5-0 vote.

“I miss Prickett’s, but you’re on the right track,” Commissioner Curt Groninga told the developer, Bruce Codding, who represents the Prickett family.

The project now needs only the approval of the city’s Design Review Board, which has a narrower charge than the commission.

The Prickett family, who first located a nursery on the site in 1945, has been trying to develop the property for at least a decade. They sold the business in 2008, and the new owners moved it east to a site near Kenwood earlier this year.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Patti Cisco said she recalled a much earlier version of the plan and said this one was a big improvement.

“Having seen other configurations a decade ago, I think this is very well designed,” Cisco said.

The site calls for four buildings totaling 43,000 square feet. The two largest ones will be a 24-hour CVS pharmacy with a drive-?thru closest to the intersection, and a “specialty grocery” that Codding - along with many neighbors supportive of the project - hopes will be a Trader Joe’s.

The grocery has expressed interest in the site in the past, and has two other popular locations in the city.

The CVS attracted its share of criticism from neighbors who questioned whether the area needed one, given Safeway pharmacy across the street, and Walgreens and existing CVS further west on Highway 12.

But most of the opposition revolved around the traffic, which some predicted would back onto Highway 12 and cause even bigger headaches for people trying to leave the St. Francis Shopping Center across Calistoga Road.

While Prickett’s Nursery was estimated to draw 330 car trips per day, the new center is expected to generate 14 times that many.

The main driveways of the two shopping centers also will be directly across from one another and will not have the benefit of a signal.

Area resident Andrew Smith predicted that turning out of the St. Francis center would soon be a “nightmare.”

Tom Scott, the Oliver’s CEO, said he was worried less about competition from the new stores, and more about the traffic tie-ups that might make it difficult for residents in Skyhawk, Oakmont and Kenwood to make it to his Montecito Avenue store, which is less than 2 miles away.

“This is a very important intersection that affects not just the Safeway and this particular parcel, it affects all of Rincon Valley,” he said.

Scott raised a number of other issues, including whether the removal of 72 trees needed more study; if greenhouse gas emissions were calculated correctly; or if the 30-foot setback from Austin Creek was appropriate.

Scott’s Cotati-based company has a history of successfully protecting its turf against competitors, including backing the 1997 effort to keep out a Lucky superstore that resulted in Cotati voters banning big-box stores, helping keep Whole Foods from expanding in east Santa Rosa, and more recently opposing a proposed Sprouts Market on Bicentennial Avenue.

But Scott said his opposition to the current project was not about keeping out the competition.

“We don’t feel that any of those businesses would threatened ours at this point in time,” he said. “We’re in a position to compete head-on with those guys.”

Several neighbors expressed support for the project.

“I’m really excited to see something happen there,” resident David Douglas said. “I think this is going to really add to Rincon Valley.”

Commissioner Peter Stanley said that every development the city approves is a gamble. But he felt the unique challenges of the site had been handled about as well as could be expected.

“In my mind this is a really good solution,” Stanley said. “Is it the best? I don’t know.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.