ANACORTES — The City Council will consider Monday welcoming big-box retailers into the city’s commercial marine district.
If the proposed changes to the city’s code are approved, retailer Fred Meyer could be allowed to move ahead with a proposal to purchase land from MJB Properties LLC, a Seattle-based company that owns the largest tract of undeveloped land in the city.
“They’d love to be here,” said Mayor Dean Maxwell of Fred Meyer. “They don’t have to build their standard extra-large store.”
For a number of years, managers at the Portland-based retailer have told city leaders they want to open a store in the community. The retailer has considered several sites, including a smaller store on the Port of Anacortes-owned 6-acres where the marine skills center will be built.
The council also is poised Monday to lift a year-old moratorium on certain types of building in Old Town and to approve an ordinance aimed at preserving the eclectic character of the city’s oldest neighborhood.
The public can weigh in the council’s proposals at a hearing Monday.
Council members plan to make good on a proposal to lift the 50,000-square-foot limit on retail space in the commercial marine district, which was set in 1999. During the 2005 update of the city’s comprehensive plan, which guides growth, the council decided the limit was arbitrary.
The proposed changes also would lift the city’s 100,000-square-foot limit on retail space in the commercial marine zone.
Large-scale retail, as well as any commercial establishment in the commercial marine zone that exceeds 20,000 square feet, will need to apply for a conditional-use permit, according to the proposed changes.
The council will require retailers and other businesses to submit an environmental impact statement that deals with the various pros and cons of a large-scale business.
This is a change from previous proposals, which would have changed the city’s code to require such applicants to demonstrate that their proposals would improve economic growth, but not detract from businesses in the city’s historic downtown.
Those requirements would be handled as an environmental impact statement as part of applying for the conditional-use permit, Maxwell said.
For the past three years, the council and mayor have said they want to bring more retailers to Anacortes. Their goal is to provide residents with places to shop for basic necessities and add sales tax revenue to the city coffers.
“We have an economic development study that shows us some of the things we don’t have,” Maxwell said.
However, both the council and Maxwell have said they want to ensure that any large-scale retail project they approve fits into the community and satisfies residents who have repeatedly said they don’t want a Wal-Mart style retailer.
The conditional-use permit process could also require applicants to use market studies and economic analyses to demonstrate that their proposals would increase the retail sales in the city, not impact existing businesses on Commercial Avenue and the Central Business District, which is the historic downtown.
The permit process also would allow the council to impose architectural and landscaping standards to keep a large-scale retail building from looking like a box, Maxwell said. Fred Meyer has already told Maxwell that it would use an architectural style that would break up the building to appear to be three structures.
The city’s commercial marine zones are around Flounder Bay in Skyline, Ship Harbor near the Washington State Ferries terminal and along Fidalgo Bay. The largest tract of undeveloped land is in the commercial marine zone east and southeast of the city’s retail core.
• Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
On the agenda
• What: Anacortes City Council
• When: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1
• Where: City Hall, 904 Sixth St., Anacortes
• Issue: Public hearing on proposals to change the city’s codes to allow big-box retailers in the commercial marine zone.
• For more information: Stop by City Hall to view the proposal, or call 360-299-1950.
