Safeway meeting recap

[from Heather S.]

The plan is for the existing Safeway to be torn down and a brand new much larger Safeway with its new "Lifestyle?" type store to open that caters to providing all of the types of things you see in a suburban supermarket but here in Petworth. The store will be significantly larger than what we have now and it will be under a residential building. The same architect that designed Park Place is designing this. There will be underground parking.

Of course we also addressed the interim issues of what to do while this Safeway is open in the next year before it's torn down. There is a new district manager who, if you ask me, seems totally on top of it all. He just moved to the area 3 weeks ago and he said he's already been in our store several times and witnessed first hand everything we do when we go in (long lines, perished food, empty shelves, poor selections, etc...) He was honest and said not everything can be fixed since store size limits the amount of things they can get into the store; however, lines should never be long, food should never be expired and the products they stock should always be stocked. He's also going to order motorized wagons for folks that need those. He also has a mystery shopper coming into the store weekly and reporting back to him and he has the store downloading inventory to his blackberry nightly so he knows the status of things. He said that he's aware of an issue in management turnover there and he also has a store manager from another Safeway who has expressed interest in managing our store. This guy is a Petworth resident so he's trying to get that pushed through since he'd rather have someone from the community manage the store. There were plenty of upset people there, rightfully so, but I felt it was a positive meeting.

I am excited about what the future brings for the Safeway. Granted, we're probably looking at 2010 till it's here, but it's nice that it's on the horizon and hopefully the Yes! Organic market will open sooner so we have something coming before then.

[Editor's note - sorry to divorce this from the previous thread 'Development meeting', but I wanted to give it more prominence]

Comments

[Lisa]

I'm all for the new design standards with fewer car park allotments. People are figuring out that one person moving around in a 3000-pound vehicle is pretty inefficient and more and more expensive. Live near public transit, don't be afraid to use those two legs. Use a cab occasionally or share a vehicle.

[Bill]

Marni, yes, the Great Streets initiative plans for fairly major upgrades to the streetscape from Upshur down to about a block south of the Metro.

[ZetteZelle]

I'm all for more public transportation, but I don't see quite how light rail would work on Georgia Ave. If it were at street-level, it would be inconvenient for cars needing to get across Georgia Ave; if it were elevated, it would overshadow the stores and houses along the street, and make the street look even more blighted. Or is there something I'm missing?

[John]

I lust for lightrail.

[AJS]

Didn't they have light rail in Springfield? Or was that monorail? Is there a difference?

[Ed]

To Anonymous who said they hope light rail doesn't ever happen here: You've obviously never been to a city that has it.

[Pip]

The new Park Place development will have underground parking. I have no information on how many spaces that will provide, but 150 spaces--one for each unit--is not especially large for that size of building.

I would imagine that the new Safeway will be constructed with a lot more (underground) parking space than the current one has.

Any increasing parking problems on the streets are going to come from developing multiple condos in existing town homes, and from increasingly affluent residents buying second cars.

[marni]

i totally agree with you Christopher on the density issue, but i foresee a lot of empty units. I'm worried about the planning as well. Georgia is not like Connecticut Ave.: super wide, lots of green and trees..i think GA will feel very dense and clausterphobic without some serious urban and lanscape planning, both of which i have doubts were really addressed. (I am excited about the proposed refurbishment of 9th st. and upshur st. though, so maybe there will be more of that on down to the metro?)
Julie pointed out the parking situation, which I had heard about too, and I can imagine our street(s) being taken over by condo dwellers without designated spaces. It is really poor planning to not create parking spaces for the units. And not a good sign of any forethought.

[chris]

I agree that the current Safeway leaves much to be desired, however, the staff there are always friendly and helpful. I would venture to say they have the best staff in any grocery I have visited in recent years. If I ever pass a staff member they almost always ask if they can help, and if I do ask for help they lead me right to the item. Cashiers are also friendly. Of course the selection is limited and the parking lot is dark and dank, but the people are great.

[julie]

one big concern I had at the meeting was the Park Place development. It turns out that the building isn't going to have a parking place allocated to each unit. On top of that, the same developer is breaking ground on a new condo building kitty corner from there, on Georgia and Quincy.

I think that's a terrible decision. The Donatelli guy said that in their U Street development they have too many parking spaces in the building and they end up renting some out. Well it seems to me that there's no problem with that!

If you've suddenly got hundreds of new condos right at the metro, I can only see massive parking problems for everyone. Businesses by that intersection will suffer because people won't be able to park, and I can see traffic back-ups as people are trying to circle the area looking for parking.

I can't believe the city allowed that to happen, and a super-huge thumbs down to Muriel Bowser for not pushing for better planning.

[Anonymous]

Light Rail? Oh wow, I really hope that doesn't happen.

[Christopher]

Where, Marni, would you rather have density? Density along Georgia should be key to creating an urban boulevard well served by transit (hopefully eventually including light rail). Two blocks from the station now sits a suburban style grocery store behind a sea of parking. This is incredibly bad land usage. Now, I may agree that we don't need more over priced condos. And I hope that some will be set aside for people of limited means, but I think this is the ideal location for dense urban development, immediately adjacent to exact that type of building. There's no reason that DC can't have another 200-300,000 resident. And developing these underutilized spaces is exactly the way to stop sprawl and conserve our resources, including land. I witnessed this same sort of anti-density nonsense in San Francisco, which like DC, has lost population over the years and actually become less dense. Meaning while the suburbs spread to nine counties and then some and people drive 2+ hours to get to their jobs. That's just dumb, and that means that some piece of the puzzle is not living up to needs of the community at large.

[Heather Schneider]

Marni: I believe the Safeway is going to open independant of the completion of the condo development and it is expected to open in advance of the units being ready (obviously the structure will have to be in place...) While, in general, I do think that condo market is way too oversaturated in DC, I don't think that it is in Petworth and I'm not too concerned. Especially because the developments that are going in aren't that enormous and they aren't one-on-top of the other like you see in some other nearby areas. Additionally, if it gets that bad, condos can always be turned into very nice rentals...

Viipottaja: There wasn't any concrete timeline discussed at this point other than the existing Safeway will still be open for the next year. I'm sure as the community taskforce comes together than we will all know more.

[marni]

I hope I am not the only one thinking that another condo development may not be in the neighbourhood's best interest? Is there a need for them? I think there will now be 5 big developments from the metro up to Upshur...seems rather congested, and with the obvious market situation, there will be a lot of unsold units and/or conversion to rentals. Also, by attaching the renovation to a condo development, the completion will be that much longer to wait for. Renovations are needed immediately. The Safeway is disgusting.

[Viipottaja]

Can you be more specific on the timeline they described?

[Joe Martin]

Heather, thanks for writing your summary.

All, it was made clear that we will need a group of community members who would like to be involved in the process of lending input as the Safeway project moves forward. More about that later. Email me, please, if you're interested: anc4c09@yahoo.com

The latest on Yes Organic Market: Gary Cha, the owner, told me a couple of weeks back that he expects to be able to open on Georgia Avenue (at Taylor) in about a year -- when the Neighborhood Development Company's construction should be complete.