From: Jacob Patterson
To: City Clerk
Subject: Public comment 6/5/23 Grocery Outlet Hearing
Date: Monday, June 05, 2023 12:07:40 PM
City Council,
Contrary to assertions otherwise, the southern portion of the project site regularly serves as an informal dirt parking area and a coastal resource, which has been brought up in various public comments. The city even included a special condition to make sure the project complied with applicable Coastal General Plan (CGP) policies concerning the need to provide alternate parking when a project displaces existing parking areas that are coastal resources like this area. Unfortunately, that special condition was erroneously rejected by the Planning Commission as impractical without providing an alternative way to satisfy this general plan requirement.
The existing parking area is an important local resource as evidenced by these photos from today, which is a random Monday, showing the extensive use of the site for parking. Please recitify this situation or a potential project approval wouldn't be consistent with the CGP.
Thanks,
--Jacob
From: Janice Sullivan
To: City Clerk
Subject: Grocery outlet
Date: Monday, June 05, 2023 12:04:24 PM
I don’t think grocery outlet should be approved. This will hurt local grocery stores. We don’t need another chain store that sells sub level food. We already have a dollar store doing just that. We should protect our local businesses.
Thank you
Janice Sullivan
Sent from my iPhone
From: Eileen McGregor
To: cdd
Cc: City Clerk
Subject: Proposed Grocery Outlet Public Hearing
Date: Monday, June 05, 2023 1:35:54 PM
To: Fort Bragg City Council Members,
At the Planning Commission Public Hearing on the proposed Grocery Outlet, May 10, 2023, it was clear people are in favor of paying less for food, the main reason people had in asking for approval of this project. Others have voiced objections to this proposal, concerned with traffic and safety issues this location presents. I share those concerns. I do not believe any amount of mitigation would make this a viable location for the Grocery Outlet proposal. Grocery Outlet should be able to find a suitable location beyond Fort Bragg city limits and still serve the needs of area residents.
Grocery Outlet’s stated business model is opportunist. In an interview broadcast on KZYX Public Radio, the attorney for the failed attempt to develop a Grocery Outlet at Highway 1 & Highway 20, stated the City of Fort Bragg invited the Grocery Outlet to Fort Bragg with its Zoning Code.” There are many “opportunist” big box and formula businesses that prey on small cities and drive out local businesses.
I ask City Officials to review the current Highway Commercial Zoning Code. By reducing the square footage and other measures would protect local businesses and preserve the what remains of our unique local character.
Respectfully,
Eileen McGregor
127 1/2 W. Fir Street, Fort Bragg, CA