MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – On Thursday night community members at the Middletown Area Town Hall meeting got an update on plans for a Dollar General store in the community and had the chance to ask questions of a county official involved in reviewing the project.
Several dozen community members packed the room at the Middletown Senior Center for the meeting, which featured the update from Principal Planner Audrey Knight of the Lake County Community Development Department.
Last year, Texas-based Cross Development applied to the county for a major use permit and parcel map in order to put a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General store in Middletown on a portion of a 3.74-acre parcel at 20900 Highway 29 that is owned by Louis and Raelene Neve of Petaluma, as Lake County News has reported: www.bit.ly/1VMc1q3 .
Cross Development constructs build-to-suit stores for Dollar General, a Tennessee-based small box retailer that so far has two stores on the Northshore – one in Clearlake Oaks, one in Nice.
The Middletown store plan is set to be heard by the Lake County Planning Commission at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 28. However, Knight warned that the agenda that day is particularly full, so it's possible that the item could end up being heard later in the day.
Cross Development also is proposing another store in the Clear Lake Riviera area near Kelseyville, after the planning commission last year voted down an initial proposal for a store a short distance from downtown Kelseyville. County planning officials told Lake County News that the Riviera store plan is not likely to go to the commission for a few more months.
Knight said Cross Development had been impatient to move forward on the Middletown plan last year, but she told them that, due to the Valley fire, it was not a good time and the firm agreed to wait. Now, they want to move forward once again.
She said some reports have been completed on the plan, including a drainage study due to the property's close proximity to St. Helena Creek, as well as a botanical survey and traffic impact analysis.
Knight explained that county staffers have to look at projects in an unbiased way, assessing what owners and developers are allowed to do in keeping with county policy while balancing that with the community's interest.
The project proposal calls for creating a parcel of less than one acre of the overall property to build the store, which Knight said would allow the project to avoid Cal Fire's setback requirements.
She said the store proposed in Middletown would be operated in similar fashion to the Dollar General stores on the Northshore, and so would be open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with day and night shifts.
While county staff has worked with Cross Development to make the building plan more consistent with the Middletown Area Plan guidelines and more palatable to the community, Knight indicated that the corporation's store layout formula is very specific and so does not fit with those local guidelines.
The county had asked for parking to be placed in the back of the store, but that doesn't fit with Dollar General's layout formula, which includes a specific parking configuration to allow for delivery trucks, she said. Additionally, she said the county is still waiting to find out if Cal Fire will be OK with the plan.
Knight went over the major use permit requirements, explaining that some decisions – like whether a project fits with community character – are left up to the planning commission.
It was on that community character basis that the Lake County Planning Commission turned down the Dollar General store proposed to be built by Cross Development across from Kelseyville High School in May 2015, as Lake County News has reported.
In August 2015, the Board of Supervisors upheld that denial in a 4-1 vote, with Supervisor Jim Comstock – who represents the Middletown area – the lone no vote.
During the Thursday meeting Knight also told the group that, separately, a combination coffee shop and car lube business was being proposed for downtown Middletown under a minor use permit.
Audience members asked Knight about issues including whether fiscal impact and tax benefit studies had been done on the Dollar General proposal. She said the company has done its own analysis but hasn't shared that with the county.
Community members also asked why chain stores were allowed, and whether Dollar General had a second possible location it was considering in Middletown. On the latter, Knight said she was not aware of a second location.
Middletown Unified School District Board President Bill Wright said the district hadn't received any formal notification about the plan, with the school board not set to meet again until after the planning commission's April 28 meeting.
Wright said the Middletown Unified School District wants to be able to respond to the project like the Kelseyville Unified School District had done, guessing the issues will be similar and noting he wanted to see a traffic plan.
Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen had in fact raised issues with traffic regarding the Kelseyville store plan that later was denied, as the store plan at that time called for it to be located across from Kelseyville High School.
Wright said he wanted to see the item continued if necessary to give his district more time to respond.
Knight apologize for the lack of notice, explaining that it may have been lost during the process of getting the project back on track.
MATH Chair Fletcher Thornton would note during the meeting that MATH also had not formally been notified that the project was back on track and set to go before the planning commission.
Knight also was asked about the store fit with the community demographics. She said the company had studied Middletown's demographics but, due to the Valley fire, she said there has been a large shift, and she suggested the company's information may not be accurate now.
Knight explained that it is hard to deny a commercial project coming in under allowed uses.
She said the only reason that the Dollar General store plan has to apply for a major use permit is due to its size – had it been 8,000 square feet or less, the major use permit would not have been necessary.
It was noted during the meeting that the Middletown Area Plan's chapter seven contains the best arguments against approving the store due to its failure to fit with community design and character.
Thornton pointed out that the community would need to provide specific grounds for denial based on planning rules such as design, location and configuration rather than whether or not they liked the store. He indicated he would communicate those concerns to county officials on behalf of MATH.
Knight added that it would be helpful if residents communicated what they wanted, not just what they didn't want.
Community member Jody Galvan asked why the store proposal was even in the works as people were in the process of trying to rebuild after the fire.
MATH Vice Chair Claude Brown reiterated the importance of the Middletown Area Plan and the store plan's lack of fit with the plan guidelines as the key to arguing against the project.
It also was reported during the meeting that an online petition addressing District 1 Planning Commission Joe Sullivan – who was at the meeting – and asking him to stop the store proposal had gathered hundreds of signatures.
As of late Friday night, the petition at www.chn.ge/1YzjGae – which had reportedly had an initial goal of 100 signatures – had more than 350 signatures. The goal on Friday had been raised to 500.
The staff report for the April 28 Planning Commission meeting will be available at the Lake County Community Development Department, Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, or on the department's Web page at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Community_Development/Planning_Division.htm in the days before the meeting, county officials said.
Community members wanting more information or to submit comments on the project can contact Senior Planner Michalyn DelValle, who is handling the Dollar General applications, at 707-263-2221 or
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Middletown Area Town Hall hosts Dollar General update
- Elizabeth Larson
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