SLO Planning Commission still reviewing proposed Target plans late Wed. night

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The San Luis Obispo Planning Commission was predicting late Wednesday that it would not finish reviewing the proposed shopping center where the city's first Target store is proposed.

The commission was reviewing the environmental impact report that covers a project to annex 31 acres into the city to build a total retail center of 188,000 square feet of retail space, including the 139,000-square foot Target, and 838 parking spaces.

The center is called Prefumo Creek Commons and is named for the creek which runs behind the property located on undeveloped land across Los Osos Valley Road from the road into Costco and Home Depot. The builder is Madonna Properties.

Planning commissioners heard more than a hour's worth of public comments, most of which were from those who either lived in the area or were business owners in the Laguna Village Shopping Center located at the intersection of LOVR and Madonna Road.

Many of those owners emphasized the local and longtime nature of their businesses, saying the city has rushed to approve big box stores on LOVR while hurting the center with all the additional traffic congestion.

John Spencer, owner of Spencer's Fresh Market in the center, said he thought the Target project was a good one. But like other business owners, he supports a new traffic light being constructed on Madonna Road at the driveway into the center, and he emphasized that traffic problems on LOVR must be addressed.

City planners had recommended commissioners approve various resolutions that would pass an environmental impact report on Prefumo Creek Commons on to the City Council for approval.

But the commissioners had just started asking staff their own questions on the project by 10 p.m.

One suggestion city traffic engineers have put forth to deal with traffic created by the project at the corner of LOVR and Madonna Road includes adding a lane on the east side of LOVR by taking land from the city-owned Fire Station Number 4.

One set of speakers may prove to be particularly troublesome to the project. There was testimony from two water experts on staff with the state Regional Water Quality Control Board saying that the report did not adequately address storm water runoff that will be created from the project and its large parking lot.

The project will need a permit from that agency to be built.

--Sally Connell

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