Commissioners deny use permit for a new Longs on Pollard Road
Drugstore chain says it won't appeal the decision to council
Pharmacy issue still lingers
By Jeff Kearns
It was a textbook Los Gatos Planning Commission drama--A local mom and pop business abandons its retail space amidst circumstances clouded by controversy, and the out-of-town landlord from Southern California tries to bring in a corporate chain store to fill the void, which many charge they created by pushing out the original store.
If Los Gatans get fired up about anything, it's that. And they did last week, packing the Council Chambers to rail against a proposal for a new Longs drugstore in the space that had been occupied for years by a locally owned pharmacy.
The more than 20 residents who spoke at the packed commission hearing were unanimously opposed to letting Longs move into the Rinconada Hills Shopping Center. Planning commissioners sided with the residents, voting 5-1 against Longs' application for a conditional use permit for the site.
The day after the hearing, a Longs spokesperson said the company would drop the application. "Basically, we're really disappointed with the commission's decision, but we're also sensitive to the message that was conveyed by the city and the residents," spokeswoman Nancy Cockerham said. She would not say if Longs was looking for other sites in town. Commissioner Kathryn Morgan, making the motion for denial, said that she couldn't make any of the findings needed to approve a Longs--which would have brought the town's total up to three.
"The majority says this use is not desirable. We have to consider public testimony, which has been consistent and moving and in great numbers," she said. "To replace a longstanding store with another link in the corporate chain doesn't serve Los Gatos."
Len Pacheco said he would also vote for denial because the application lacked a master plan, a comprehensive traffic report, an overall shopping center improvement plan, neighborhood support and a design that's unique and attractive.
Lee Quintana was the lone nay vote, with Jim Lyon absent. Quintana said she was undecided on the issue, but would ultimately vote against the motion to deny the use permit. "In our parameters, I don't know if I can justify turning down the use if it weren't a chain," she said. "I won't support the motion because we're here to determine if a use is consistent with our laws, not if we're against a chain store."
Commissioners also had reservations about approving the Longs application before seeing an application from Safeway that's going to be coming to planning commissioners soon.
Duckett-Wilson owns half of the center, and Safeway owns the other half. Safeway is almost ready to submit a plan to remodel the store and improve the surrounding parking areas. Commissioners said they wanted to make sure the two plans were working in concert. Commissioners asked if Longs would accept being linked with Safeway, and Longs officials said they wouldn't want to do that.
Residents voiced concerns about all aspects of the plan, including increased traffic and potential safety hazards associated with the middle school across the street, the plan to change the building's façade, lackluster maintenance and upkeep at the center, and the impact of a new Longs on other businesses in the shopping center, including a photo finishing store. Longs says it planned to offer photo processing at the store. Neighbors also objected to Longs' expanded hours, which they said would mean a certain increase in traffic in the area.
But the main topic on almost every speaker's mind was the potential for another chain store in the town. Many residents cited a goal from section 2.3.1 of the general plan's land use element: "To preserve the existing character and quality of life within the town."
"It's very important that the commission hear that people like me, who have been here for 20 years and came here for the small-town charm, are concerned that small businesses are being squeezed out, and that it does affect the town's character," neighbor Edward Pasternak said.
The debate continued to be characterized by the dispute between the landlord, Los Angeles-based Duckett-Wilson Development Company, and the pharmacy that's moving out of the shopping center, Rinconada Pharmacy.
Planning Commission chairwoman Laura Nachison told the audience to stick to the planning and zoning issues at hand, but both sides raised the issue anyway. Patrick Conway, property manager for the center, insists that Rinconada Pharmacy elected to leave of its own volition, and only tried to renew its lease after Duckett-Wilson had already lined up a Longs to take over the space.
David and Vivian Matsuo, who have owned and operated the pharmacy for the last 12 years, say they were pushed out so the landlord could bring in a corporation with deep pockets. Having taken the matter to court and lost, the Matsuos are now in the process of moving their operation to Winchester Boulevard.
Neighbors, most of whom believe that the Matsuos were forced out, collected more than 1,000 signatures in opposition to the Longs application. Of the more than 60 letters that came in to commissioners, most were against the new Longs.
Longs officials tried to keep that dispute from clouding the issues at the hearing. "How people feel about the previous tenant leaving the center is not relevant to our application," said Longs architect George Ramstead. "We are proposing to open a small neighborhood-serving pharmacy in a soon-to-be-vacant space which used to be a small, neighborhood-serving pharmacy."
Duckett-Wilson originally developed the shopping center in 1976, and continues to own and manage it.
The proposed Longs would have been about 7,000 square feet. Rinconada Pharmacy measured about 4,000 square feet, but Duckett-Wilson says that the owners of the adjacent liquor store are willing to relocate to a slightly smaller space elsewhere in the center that's been vacant for over a year, and that Longs would take both spaces. The other two Longs stores in Los Gatos measure about 6,500 square feet and 15,000 square feet.
After the Longs hearing, commissioners also denied a separate application to move the liquor store, saying that it was directly linked with the Longs application and shouldn't be considered separately.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
