"We receive thousands of requests every year from customers, city officials, shopping center owners and other businesses requesting that we consider opening a store in their community. Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to open a store in every community, so we are very selective about our new store locations," Douglas Yokomizo, vice president of Trader Joe's, wrote in a letter to the town.

Trader Joe's got the nod of approval from the town's planning commission to move into the old McWhorter's building at 15466 Los Gatos Blvd. The store will be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and deliveries can only take place between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The company plans to add 235 square feet to the space and to restripe the parking lot to create two new handicapped parking spaces.

A traffic study found that the Los Gatos Village Square shopping center will see an estimated 718 additional trips per day with the presence of Trader Joe's. Though this isn't expected to significantly impact traffic, Trader Joe's is to pay nearly $58,000 to the town for traffic mitigation and transportation improvement projects.

According to store representatives, having Trader Joe's in the area will draw new customers to the shopping center overall, thus increasing business for the other stores in the center. Company plans to donate food to a local food bank and to volunteer at community events are additional community benefits, representatives said.

Diane Rose, who owns a restaurant in the same shopping center, said she is thrilled to welcome Trader Joe's into the neighborhood, as are two other business owners in the center.

"I've been praying for Trader Joe's to come in. I do need a neighbor like Trader Joe's," she told the commission, adding that the grocery store could even use her parking spaces.

One man at last week's meeting objected to Trader Joe's as a neighbor. Horst Pfendt, who owns property on Carlton Avenue behind the shopping center, wanted reassurance that the town could somehow enforce the conditions placed on the grocery store.

Considerable traffic already exists on Carlton Avenue as a result of customers parking in the residential area, Pfendt said. Also, trucks delivering goods to the various businesses have been double parking and unloading the items off of his street, he said, adding that the town has not adequately dealt with the problem.

Before approving the application, some of the commissioners hinted that a number of local community organizations are eager to have Trader Joe's become a member, comments Pfendt felt illustrated that commissioners had made up their minds to approve the application prior to the meeting.

"There was no predetermination of anything coming into that meeting," said Paul Dubois, chairman of the commission.

The commission is sensitive to Pfendt's concerns, and conditions to Trader Joe's use permit address the traffic issue, Dubois said. The permit requires that deliveries to Trader Joe's only take place from the parking lot in front of the store and that no deliveries be made from Carlton Avenue.

The commissioners approved the application 7-0.