For the week of May 15 - 21, 2002

P&Z says no to 
Paul’s Market

Required rezone doesn’t win support

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

Paul’s Market didn’t find a welcoming crowd May 7 for its proposed new store at the Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission.

The grocery store didn’t do any better with the P&Z, which recommended the Hailey City Council turn down Paul’s application for a rezone.

Zatica wants to build a 35,800 square-foot building and parking lot on the entire block between Main and River streets and Maple and Chestnut streets.

However, half of this block, the half fronting River Street, is zoned general residential, so Zatica applied to the P&Z to rezone it to business.

Paul Kenny, of Colliers International real estate, architect Dale Binning, and the Hailey Paul’s manager Brian Ford represented Zatica at the meeting.

Binning described the basic plan of the development, to put the store building on the Main Street half of the block with its entrance and parking lot on the west side of the building, facing River Street.

If approved, the Hitchrack Motel would be demolished, but the gas pumps on the corner of Main and Maple streets would stay.

Kenny told the commission that "the parking lot is meant to buffer the residential" area on River Street.

He argued that the site fits within the boundaries of the city’s central business district, and that the grocery store would be an "in-filling of the central district" and not an expansion of it.

One of the goals of the city’s comprehensive plan is to fill in its central business district before expanding it.

The district is basically River Street, Main Street and First Avenue, extending from the Albertson’s grocery on the north side of the city and the Valley Car Wash on the south side.

Kenny said the site was the only one left in the district suitable for the new store.

Binning said the size of the new store disallowed a simple remodel of the current Paul’s on Main Street between Bullion and Carbonate streets.

He said a larger store was needed in order to compete with Albertson’s and draw customers with a larger selection of products.

"If Paul’s doesn’t make this move to reestablish itself, it will be gone. It wouldn’t be what it has to be to compete. That’s how it works," Binning said.

Response from the standing-room-only audience of about 60 people was about evenly split between supporters and opponents.

Attorney Barry Luboviski, representing River Street property owners Marty and Heidi Smith, said the proposed development didn’t meet the comprehensive plan because the rezone wouldn’t provide a buffer between residential and business areas.

"To say that a parking lot is a good buffer is inaccurate," Luboviski said.

The development also failed another guideline of the comprehensive plan, compatibility, he said.

"I can’t think of many uses less compatible to a residential area than a parking lot," he said.

Tom Kehrer, a resident of South River Street, told the commission that his and everyone’s primary concern should be safety.

"Anyone who lives along this stretch of River Street knows there is a lot of traffic, and with a grocery store, there will be more," he said.

"Let’s see a show of hands. Who here would like to see their kids ride their bikes in front of a grocery store?" he asked.

No one raised a hand.

Karen Fisher, who identified herself as a Hailey businesswoman since 1986, asked the store’s opponents to consider what might happen to the city’s downtown core if Paul’s located in Woodside instead of the South Main Street site.

She said, "Small business people will tell you they need a large business nearby to draw customers to them."

She predicted that if Paul’s moved to Woodside, small businesses would move there, too, or north in the direction of Albertson’s.

Fisher disputed declarations by opponents who said there were other and better locations for a new Paul’s in the central business core.

"There is no alternative site."

Gary Carr, the owner of the Hitchrack Motel, said, "I love seeing everyone here. I wish you were here for Albertson’s."

Moyra Riggen, who owns most of the block already zoned business, told the commission and the audience that "sooner or later, I am going to sell."

"I chose Paul’s because I thought it was the right thing to do."

Store manager Ford told the commission and the critics in the audience that his grandchildren "live down the street from the proposed store."

"God forbid anything we proposed would endanger them," he said.

"This is not an outlandish request," he said. "I dream everyday of a nice, new store."

 

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