CVS Project on the Rocks: City Council Votes 5 to 0 to Block Drive Thru Windows!

[Peacetown Jonathan]

Responsive Government arrived in Sebastopol this evening, in a big way!

In its first session led by Mayor Michael Kyes and newly seated Council Members Robert Jacob and John Eder, Sebastopol's City Council voted to approve the two most porgressive city ordinances that the city has seen in years.

First, an anti-harassment bill for cyclists and pedestrians, the first in Northern California, won in a 5 to 0 vote. Sebastopol's ordinance. backed by the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, is likely to be a model for similar ordinances in other Sonoma County cities, and for the Board of Supervisors as well.

More dramatically, the Council voted to ban all new drive through windows in downtown Sebastopol, and to NOT issue a building permit to any new business with a drive through window. Even Council Member Patrick Slayter, the only Council Member remaining of the three who voted to override our Design Review Board's rejection of the CVS project (and its suburban style design), this time voted with the majority to stop drive through windows. A year and a half ago, Council Member Sarah Gurney was the only Council Member courageous enough to challenge the suspicious traffic report that claimed this development's 2,000 new car trips per day would not add more than five seconds to the congestion of the busiest, most dangerous corner in West County. Today, she was one of five members with a mandate to sustain a thriving, green, pedestrian-friendly downtown.

Tonight's vote means that without singling out CVS, the enormously unpopular development at the crossroads of our community will not be able to have a drive through window. An insider at CVS told me more than a year ago that the entire project was being built to allow a drive through window at the intersection between 116 and Highway 12. Without the drive through window, the economics of the a new CVS store fall apart. After all, the new store would contain less than half the retail space as the CVS it was going to replace, next to Mary's Pizza.

During the past few months, before and after the Council Election on November 6, scores of neighbors have asked me if we have any chance of defeating CVS.

It appears as though just happened tonight!

Responsive Government for the People prevailed. Our votes were registered, Jacob and Eder were voted in, and our elected representatives , as well as our city staff, listened. Thank you!

As they did last summer, Armstrong Development tonight had their representative trot out their thinly veiled legal threat to sue our city on behalf of their multi-billion dollar client, CVS, if we did not acquiesce to their right to build what they wanted.

Except this time, their threats fell on deaf ears.

Citizen after citizen spoke politely, but incredibly firmly, about our vote to Go Local in this past election. We spoke against the drive through windows and the auto-centric, carbon monoxide poisoning, fossil fuel-reliant, climate change-causing way of life they represent.

Not here. No more. Take your corporate marbles and go home.

It was as though the magical power of the gargantuan Corptocracy withered and died in the sunlight that Responsive Government brought to bear.

Their Big Lie: "what's good for multi-billion dollar companies and their profits is good for Main Street, USA, no longer had the power to sway. We, the people, just voted out of office those who believed this decrepit mythology.

Except for a highly paid representative from out of town, not a single human being spoke up for the corporate person that CVS claims the right to be.

A consensus was reached this evening in Sebastopol, only a few days before the Mayan calendar ends.

A new paradigm of representative democracy is beginning.

I recently heard the question, "Is Community the New Messiah."

This evening, in Sebastopol, it feels like the answer is YES.

[scamperwillow]

As good as it sounds, I'm feeling cautious - I don 't believe it will be that simple, but maybe I'm wrong..... Now I'm really sorry I missed the meeting!

Responsive Government arrived in Sebastopol this evening, in a big way!

[scamperwillow]

What I really hope they will consider is to take a small part of all that money they were going to spend and upgrade their existing store and add a drive-though there if they must have one.

As good as it sounds, I'm feeling cautious - I don 't believe it will be that simple, but maybe I'm wrong..... Now I'm really sorry I missed the meeting!

[Barry]

Sebastopol OKs drive-thru moratorium
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20121219/ARTICLES/121219518/1350?p=all&tc=pgall

By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at 10:26 a.m.

The Sebastopol City Council Tuesday imposed an immediate moratorium on new drive-thrus, an action that could further delay the controversial CVS Pharmacy-Chase Bank branch project at the city center.

“My feeling is drive-thrus are an outmoded model,” said Councilman Patrick Slayter, who proposed a moratorium a month ago. “And with our limited urban space, I am not sure devoting traffic lanes to drive-thrus is the best use of our limited space.”

The only on-going project that will be affected is the proposed pharmacy and bank proposal at the vacant Pellini Chevrolet dealership.

Interim City Manager Larry McLaughlin said, however, that CVS was not the target of the moratorium, which he said applies to any site in Sebastopol that could be developed.

“This isn't a ban; it is to maintain the status quo while the Planning Commission and City Council study the subject,” McLaughlin said. “Studying a subject does not necessarily lead to a ban.”

Opponents of the CVS project see it as an opening in their attempt to get the developer, Armstrong Development Inc. of Sacramento, to abandon the controversial project.

“This is something that will affect our town forever,” said Helen Shane of Small Town Sebastopol, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the project's impact report. “We don't want it here. We hope it further discourages them.”

The urgency ordinance, which will remain in affect for 45 days, was passed on a 5-0 vote. McLaughlin said it is likely, though, the council will act to extend the moratorium for a year.

It affects any project that hasn't progressed to the stage of having a building permit in hand and is prepared to begin construction, McLaughlin said.

Armstrong Development of Sacramento is behind the CVS-Chase project. Company vice president Bill McDermott could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The $10 million project, subject of dozens of public meetings, has been the focus of emotional community debate. Its design was finally approved Aug. 22 in a 3-2 council vote, which overturned a denial by the city's Design Review Board.

The project was also an issue in the November City Council election, in which two new council members who opposed the CVS project were elected.

The approved design includes drive-through lanes for the pharmacy and the bank branch, which are proposed as separate buildings.

However, the developer has not returned to the council with design changes that were requested, or applied for a demolition permit, which are steps necessary before getting a building permit, McLaughlin said.

“They have not done anything since the project was approved,” McLaughlin said. “Cities do have a right to change their laws that affect existing projects that have not received vested rights and you receive vested rights by taking out a building permit and beginning work.”

[sambacat]

It's long from over, however. This message from Councilwoman Sarah Gurney (who introduced the moratorium ordinance):

Just another item of information - this moratorium only lasts for 45 days, and it can be renewed for a year. Again, we'll need the majority vote when it comes back. Please watch the Council's agendas in late January and early February and let us know your views.


Thank you!


Sarah [office: 823.6500]

Sarah Glade Gurney, 824.1871 [message only]
Councilmember, City of Sebastopol
Think locally. Act neighborly.

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