News - Local

Published: Friday, Jul. 10, 2009

SLO Planning Commission delays Target decision

A barrage of comments about traffic, water and other issues spurred the postponement

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The San Luis Obispo Planning Commission on Wednesday delayed any decision on the proposal that would include the city’s first Target store because its Wednesday meeting was filled with comments about open space, traffic and storm water problems tied to the center.

Commissioners are expected to finish discussion of the environmental impact report on the project at their July 22 meeting. Staff had recommended the commission support the report Wednesday, and forward it to the City Council for approval.

Prefumo Creek Commons is the name of the project that is proposed to include the 139,000-square-foot Target store in a center that will include 188,000 square feet of total retail space. It will also feature an 838-space parking lot.

The Target will have about 14,000 square feet of groceries as currently planned. City Economic Development Manager Claire Clark said the project is expected to bring $562,000 in new sales tax dollars into the city annually.

The proposal calls for annexing 31 acres of farm land called the “gap property” into the city, land located on Los Osos Valley Road across from the entrance to Home Depot and Costco. The developer is Madonna Properties.

The majority of the speakers Wednesday were neighbors of, customers of or business owners at the Laguna Village Shopping Center at Madonna Road and Los Osos Valley Road.

Store owners said the city is falling over itself to bring Target in, as other development has made it more difficult for drivers to get into their own older shopping center.

“Right now, the shopping center is being choked to death,” said Randy Poltl, Laguna Village’s manager.

The City Council has agreed to address the center’s traffic concerns as part of a larger traffic discussion at its own Sept. 15 meeting.

Two staff members for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board also appeared to complain that the environmental report “inadequately” addresses storm water runoff.

Dominic Roques, engineering consultant for the state board, said there is nothing innovative being proposed. As the meeting progressed, he said commissioners were wrongly getting the impression that environmental concerns had been addressed.

“This parking lot is really a parking lot from the 1980s from a water quality standpoint,” he said. Roques said it calls for collection of water in one place and then just releasing it into the creek without treating dissolved oil and other pollutants.

City planner Phil Dunsmore said the staff does believe there is adequate protection for the creek from pollutants, with filters and reservoirs. The regional board has permitting authority for the project, so its concerns could become more problematic down the line.

The city’s General Plan states that new projects should feature 50 percent open space, but this project is proposed to provide less than that. It will include 16.7 acres for the shopping center, more than two acres for a road, and 11.9 acres for new open space.

City staff cited a property-specific exception in the General Plan that allowed development if the land east of the creek — the 11-plus acres — were put in open space.

But some of the same community activists who have fought commercial development on the adjacent Dalidio Ranch complained about any open space exception.

Clint Pearce, Madonna spokesman, said he was optimistic that the project would move forward.