Grocery Outlet construction moves to the next stage

On July 26, Fort Bragg City Council denied an appeal to delay the construction of Grocery Outlet on S. Franklin St. The store can now move onto the next phase of its development.

Leslie Kashiwada led the appeal, citing her concerns that the planning commission didn’t complete an Environmental Impact Report. Instead, the commission used a Mitigated Negative Declaration.

In her appeal, Kashiwada alleged that the MND didn’t go far enough to ensure that the Grocery Outlet construction wouldn’t negatively impact the community and environment. She was concerned for the local animal populations, as the report only took a small sample of what animals used the space.

Kashiwada was also concerned about the traffic surrounding the Grocery Outlet, saying that the planned store would cause a lot of traffic slowdowns. She also voiced concerns that the store would be bad for the local economy by keeping wages low.

The planning commission rebutted, claiming that an EIR wasn’t necessary when the MND showed that the environmental impacts would be less than significant. They also showed their plans to mitigate traffic issues and pointed out that affordable groceries are helpful to the local economy.

Many Fort Bragg citizens came to voice their opinions during the public comment. Many were in support of denying the appeal because they wanted the Grocery Outlet to be built as soon as possible. These supporters were concerned with Fort Bragg’s food insecurity.

Fort Bragg’s Safeway is the most expensive Safeway in California, while Fort Bragg’s average income is less than $25,000 a year. As such, there are many citizens who struggle to put food on the table. A few members of the public cited the high cost of living as the reason they had to leave Fort Bragg. Others told anecdotes of tourists buying their groceries from other towns before coming to Fort Bragg.

Councilmember Lindy Peters voiced his full support for getting the Grocery Outlet built quickly. He recently went into the Grocery Outlet in Willits and found that he saved 33 percent on the same groceries he normally bought. He believes that having a Grocery Outlet would help the food insecurity problem.

While councilmember Tess Albin-smith supports the idea of the Grocery Outlet being built, she argues that not completing the EIR opens the city to litigation. She wanted to deny the appeal, have the EIR completed, and then move the project forward.

“I was completely surprised and disappointed this project didn’t undergo a full Environmental Impact Report,” Albin-smith said. “If they had, we might be looking forward to our new store without delay.”

In response to Albinsmith’s concerns about future litigation, the council added indemnification of the city to their motion to deny the appeal.

Vice Mayor Jessica Morsell-haye, councilmember Marcia Rafanan, and councilmember Lindy Peters voted to deny the appeal, while Tess Albin-smith voted to uphold the appeal. Mayor Bernie Norvell recused himself. The project will move to the next stage of its development.