Trader Joe’s dropped from Rincon Valley shopping center project in Santa Rosa

A developer has dropped plans to build a supermarket in east Santa Rosa envisioned for a Trader Joe’s outlet under an agreement announced Monday with the project’s leading critic, Sonoma County grocer Oliver’s Markets.

Project developer Bruce Codding said Monday he will now construct a smaller retail development without a supermarket at the intersection of Highway 12 and Calistoga Road, the former site of Prickett’s Nursery.

In return, Oliver’s will withdraw its appeal of the October decision by the city Planning Commission to approve the 43,000-square-foot project, said Tom Scott, CEO of the Cotati-based supermarket chain. The City Council had been scheduled to review the appeal at its meeting Tuesday.

The revised plans will still include space for a CVS Pharmacy. But a proposed 13,600-square-foot supermarket space will be replaced by a building about 30 percent smaller, said Codding, principal of Codding Commercial and a project partner with the Prickett family.

Scott and Codding pointed to different factors in explaining the matter’s resolution.

Scott acknowledged that Oliver’s has a market less than two miles away, and “not having another competitor in the trade area certainly helps our store.”

But he maintained the project’s traffic and other environmental impacts had not been adequately explored. A Berkeley consulting firm hired by Oliver’s found areas that warranted “a little deeper dive,” he said.

“I didn’t think the traffic study was sufficient,” said Scott, adding the extra car trips generated by the project would hinder customers trying to reach Oliver’s on nearby Montecito Avenue.

Codding, meanwhile, suggested the Prickett family members “don’t have the luxury of spending a lot of additional time” before city officials or in court arguing over the adequacy of environmental studies - and possibly having to conduct additional reviews.

The only way to make sure they could move forward with the project, he said, “was to come to an agreement with Oliver’s, which is what we did.”

As to the outcome, Codding said, “I’m disappointed by the process, which is dictated by (state) environmental law, not Oliver’s.”

The Prickett family first located a nursery on the land in the 1940s. In 2008 they sold the business to new owners that since have moved the nursery east near Highway 12 and Melita Road.

The family has been trying to develop the 5-acre site along Calistoga Road for at least a decade.

Based on feedback from area residents, Trader Joe’s was Codding’s top choice to occupy the supermarket space, though no agreement had been reached with the German-owned retailer. Now, the developer said, he instead may seek to attract a “critical mass” of food-related businesses, including restaurants, bakeries or brew houses.

The project, known as The Shops at Austin Creek, still needs approval from the city Design Review Board. But Codding said his latest revision shouldn’t require a return to the Planning Commission.

Construction, he said, could begin as early as this spring.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit