2A Public Hearing 2007 0709 - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 16, 2007 Chuck Moore Vice President of Construction Grocery Outlet 2000 Fifth Street Berkeley, CA 94710-1918 RE: Grocery Outlet Proposed Neighborhood Grocery Store at 1550 E. 14th Street, San Leandro Dear Mr. Moore: This letter is in response to your letter of March 19, 2007 regarding the proposed Grocery Outlet in San Leandro ("City"). You have requested that the City determine that the interim urgency ordinance, adopted on September 5, 2006 and extended by the San Leandro City Council on November 6, 2006 ("moratorium"), does not apply to Grocery Outlet's proposed operation of a grocery store at 1550 E. 14th Street. After reviewing your letter and supporting documents, the City is unable to grant your request as we have determined that the terms of the moratorium do apply to Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet has proposed locating a 25,620 square foot store at 1550 E. 14th Street ("Project"), which is located in the City's Commercial Downtown District ("CD"). Grocery Outlet contends that the Project is small vis-a-vis the current industry standard for supermarkets and is therefore more akin to a neighborhood grocery store than a supermarket. To this end, Grocery Outlet reasons that the Project is not subject to the moratorium because it falls within the category of "Neighborhood/specialty food markets" which is a permitted use in the CD District and does not require any planning entitlements. I Notwithstanding Grocery Outlet's contention that the proposed Project is small vis-a-vis current industry standards for supermarkets, the City has consistently treated stores similar in size to the Project as supermarkets, rather than neighborhood grocery stores. For instance, a recent application for the establishment of a 7,900 square foot grocery store located at 14340 E. 14th Street was considered a supermarket and subjected to Administrative Review by the Zoning Enforcement Official (pursuant to San Leandro Zoning Code Section 2-628, supermarkets in the South Area-1 district are subject to Administrative Review). Consistent with past practice, the City considers the proposed Project a supermarket. Section 2-608 B. of the San Leandro Zoning Code provides that all supermarkets in the CD district which exceed 10,000 square feet are allowed in the CD district subject to the approval of a conditional use permit. As you are aware, pursuant to Section 2.A of the moratorium, "no use permit, variance, or any other applicable planning approval for use, may be approved or issued for certain properties. . . until November 6, 2007." Given that Grocery Outlet must obtain a conditional use permit in order to establish a 25,620 square foot store at 1550