MOUNT VERNON — Residents near the proposed site of a Winco Foods store at College Way and Urban Avenue won’t see much change to the 19.8-acre lot this month.

An appeal many of them support will stall the process for a while as it unfolds during four possibly all-day sessions in November.

The city’s hearing examiner will then have at least 10 days to make a decision and pass it on to the City Council for another vote.

The hearing’s first session was Oct. 8 and will be continued at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Mount Vernon Police and Court Campus, 1805 Continental Place.

Most of the next four sessions will feature experts on each side of the appeal presenting research about the project’s impact on everything from streams to noise levels in the area, city officials said.

Michael Frazier lives within a mile of the site and formed the group, Citizens for a Sustainable Mount Vernon, to oppose the Winco project just a few days before the deadline.

CSMV’s appeal to the State Environmental Policy Act suggests city officials and Winco Foods should take a second look at the store’s impact on the environment and community before building.

“It’s about being responsible. I think it serves us as the community to answer as many questions that are reasonable to answer to ensure that the choice they make is ultimately a good one for the health of our city,” said Frazier, who declined to say what he does for a living.

The big idea

Beyond environmental concerns, Frazier said the appeal also asks the city to consider whether another big-box store is best for the community.

It’s a question that’s been raised about similar developments in cities across the country. National “anti-sprawl” groups now offer expert help to communities wanting to stall or prevent the arrival of big-box stores.

Though Frazier didn’t solicit the help of any national experts, he said he has spent about $1,000 on experts, fees and a lawyer for his case.

His lawyer, Claudia Newman of Bricklin & Newman LLP, is from the same law office that handled a previous SEPA appeal against the new Wal-Mart in Mount Vernon.

Rebecca Lowell, a senior planner with the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, said the appeal against Wal-Mart was focused mostly on traffic concerns, which were resolved through an agreement with the state Department of Transportation.

In contrast, the Winco appeal asks the city to rehash each piece of its decision to initially approve the store.

Frazier said this is mostly to ensure the city’s decision process is adequate and subject to public approval.

“The overall issue is just making sure that this goes through proper review,” Newman, the appellant lawyer, said.

The city approved the project with a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance, which states the project would not significantly harm the environment as long as certain conditions were met.

“We don’t make our decisions in a vacuum,” Lowell said. Her binder of documents on the site, including research from the city’s topical experts, is nearly a foot thick.

The conditions required for Winco to build include the company paying for roads to be widened, sidewalks to be poured and traffic signals to be installed near the site.

And all new developments must abide by existing city codes, which regulate things such as light and noise. Lowell said those codes address many of the issues brought up in the appeal.

Lowell said the Winco-funded traffic improvements would be an additional draw for retail tenants to build on the eight lots platted in the Winco Foods shopping center, Lowell said.

Inevitably Commercial

Jim Scott, broker at Windermere Commercial Real Estate and part owner of three of the lots in the center, says commercial use for the site is inevitable.

He said though he understands why residents don’t want the store in their backyards, such vacant property in an urban setting won’t sit empty for long.

In fact, this particular property has been zoned general commercial for 12 years and was rezoned in 2005 to exclude a multi-family residential development that applied to build on the land, Lowell said.

“We felt strongly that we have an imbalance between family residential and commercial properties… This is where our commercial port should be and where it’s been planned,” Lowell said, noting the property’s proximity to major arterial roads such as College Way.

Scott said the commercial site is not easy to develop considering its largest area, where the Winco would be built, is in the corner farthest from the main intersection.

But he said that’s why Winco might be an ideal store to draw future businesses and consumers into the center.

The proposed 83,000-square-foot store would be the 13th Winco in the state, with the nearest location in Marysville.

Winco stores specialize in offering large selections and bulk foods and are open 24 hours a day, according to the company’s Web site. A Winco spokesman was not available for comment.

The Web site also boasts Winco is an employee-owned company, a reference to an employee pension plan purchased from the founding family.

Empty buildings

Though the proposed development could recruit more new stores to the area, some residents who spoke during a public comment period at the first Winco hearing said they’d like to see nearby empty buildings filled first.

Many said they think the Winco should be moving into the empty Wal-Mart building just west on College Way instead.

However, a use restriction imposed by Safeway on the former Wal-Mart property prohibits any stores that sell groceries. This is why Wal-Mart built a new building on Freeway Drive when it wanted to expand to sell groceries.

Jana Hanson, community and economic development director for Mount Vernon, addressed many of the questions about Winco’s location in a recent memo to council members.

She said both the former Albertson’s and Joe’s buildings on College Way are too small for Winco’s needs and too large for most retail chains.

And what might be the best use for the big buildings — breaking them into smaller retail spaces for multiple tenants — would cost about twice as much as what prospective stores are willing to pay right now, according to examples from Hanson’s memo.

“Regardless of the explanations that these are privately controlled properties and not within the control of the city, there still seems to be a perception by some that the city should require new businesses to locate in existing buildings before a new building can be built,” Hanson said in the memo.

Real estate broker Scott said, especially in today’s commercial market, the buyer gets to pick the location that is most beneficial.

“That’s the way the system works,” Scott said. “They’re not obligated to pick up an empty box store just because somebody thinks they should.”

n Whitney Pipkin can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at wpipkin@skagitpublish ing.com.