Planning Director Kenyon Webster's Troubling Role in the CVS Controversy

A recent letter in the Sonoma West by Larry Robinson began, "It is difficult to find words to describe how appalled I am by Councilmember Sarah Gurney's comments at last week's council meeting regarding the role of Kenyon Webster in developing our new general plan."

Ms. Gurney had dared to suggest that elected officials and citizens, not Mr. Webster, ought to determine the POLICY of Sebastopol's new general plan, and that Mr Webster's role ought to be as a facilitator of finding and managing the high priced consulting firm that handles a democratic process to determine what the plan says. Mr. Robinson noted that "I do not know who has done more for Sebastopol than Kenyon Webster," and said that Ms. Gurney's comments were a' deplorable and gratuitous insult" to Mr. Webster.

Like a number of subsequent letter writers in Sonoma West, I disagree. I appreciate the courage that Council Member Gurney has shown in standing up to our Planning Director's legally questionable tendency to dictate, as opposed to advise, our elected officials on important policy decisions. I think that a public discussion about the proper role of Sebastpol's Planning Director is long overdue. In this assessment, it is important to consider, and review, the highly troubling role that Mr Webster has played in the continuing mess that is the CVS project at Pellini corner.

Two aspects of the controversial CVS development that have been kept hidden in the public debate have always been who is this immensely unpopular store being created for, and why?

In a conversation about the project a few years ago with an anonymous, well informed CVS employee, I was told that the local employees did not support the project. What has been driving this deal all along, I was told, is that the CVS business execs at corporate headquarters were looking for locations to open new drive through window driven stores. In this process “they looked at a map,” and noticed that Route116 crossed Highway 12 at a corner where a large parcel (Pellini's) was for sale And that thousands of vehicles from affluent North Bay passed by that spot on their way somewhere else. A perfect place to sell them drugs en route.

I was told that the new store would lack a loading deck outside, that it would have almost no storage area, and that all supplies would have to be inconveniently carried to a small area on the upper floor for unloading. The new CVS plan provides for a far smaller, and less functional, retail space than the existing store.

But selling more locally taxable retail goods is not the reason that CVS’ corporate sits insist upon moving its Sebastopol store. Indeed, CVS plans to sell far LESS on the sales floor, and far more untaxed prescription drugs.

An economic analysis of the tax benefits to the city of the CVS deal would have demonstrated that sales tax to the city from CVS would fall significantly were the new store to replace the existing one. This is because prescription drugs are not taxed, while the merchandise like toilet paper and stationary and candy and junk food sold in the store is taxed. And the big secret of the proposed store is that shelf space for merchandise will be SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED in the new store. There would be less than half the shelf life--and half the tax revenue.

One of the numerous ways in which our city has been badly served by our Planning Director is that he failed to create, for our decision making City Council, an impartial economic analysis of the CVS project, the most impactful new downtown area development in years. This was NOT part of what Mr Webster seems to have perceived as his role. Instead, he has effectively acted as a cheerleader and advocate to make the CVS deal happen. Mr. Webster cherry picked his duties, in the process, choosing to make policy decisions on behalf of our city ("approve CVS"), instead of providing our elected representatives with objective reports so that THEY could make the policy decisions that we elected them to make,

What was never provided, or even requested, by Mr. Webster’s Planning Department was a report to the city containing tax revenue implications, with a simple to calculate sales tax impact (on the basis of comparing existing sales per square foot of retail to projected, multiplied by reduced floor space), as well as the portion of increased real estate taxes that would come to the City (less than a paltry $15,000 per year). And the impact (likely reduced because of less floor space) on local employment.

This report would have probably shown REDUCED tax revenue and employment for Sebastopol. Which seems to be why it was never done. Instead, supporters of this project were not inconvenienced by conflicting facts when they publicly heralded vague assertions of increased real estate taxes, as well as new (short term) construction jobs.

Meanwhile, Sebastopol’s 7,500 citizens and thousands of neighboring resident would suffer for the rest of our lives by far more traffic at the most congested spot in West County, and a drive thru window disrupting our pedestrian downtown at our most dangerous traffic crossroads.

Instead of being provided with accurate facts about the real traffic and economic impact of the CVS deal when our City Council made their controversial decision to conditionally approve the plan, our City Council was ordered by its Planning Director that they could NOT CONSIDER traffic because they had "already signed off" on a rushed through traffic report.

As I reported here at Wacco some time go, this was a report for which Planning Director Webster had cherry picked the input data provided to the outside consultant that measured the traffic impact from the Pellini CVS project, to measure traffic at rush hour eastbound from High Street on Bodega Avenue, instead of Jewell Avenue (four times as far away). As a result of this, the report noted that existing traffic AT RUSH HOUR heading east on Bodega to Main Street is just 34 seconds, and would increase to 38 seconds (try clocking this at rush hour and see if it is ever just 38 seconds from Jewell!). And that because this impact was not more than five seconds difference, and because the traffic at that corner was graded an “E” and not a “F,” there was a “negative declaration” of traffic impact--and hence no need for an Environmental Impact Statement. With that “negative dec” in hand, Mr, Webster repeatedly informed our elected officials that the traffic impacts could not be considered in their decision to approve this project, because they had already signed off on the traffic impact.

After Sebastopol’s independent Planning Commission spent months reviewing the CVS plan and the developer’s refusal to remove a drive through window from it--a window out of character with the city’s General Plan, CVS turned to our City Council to overturn its own Planning Commission. At that time, Planning Director Webster informed the Council that all the conditions that CVS had been requested to comply with by our City Council had been met. This was simply not true, as reported here at Wacco, but it swayed former Council Member Guy Wilson, into adding his vote to Council Members Kathleen Shaffer and Patrick Slayter into voting to overturn the City’s Planning Commission. This unpopular 3 to 2 vote, as well as planning Director Webster’s written and controversial advisory that all conditions have been met, provided the basis for CVS to sue our city,

If Planning Director Webster or a supporter of his would like to refute these assertions or provide his opinion about this issue, replying on this Wacco public forum would be an opportune, and transparent, place to do so. To my knowledge, Mr. Webster has never told our City Council, City Manager, or local media, why the traffic report only extended to High Street, or what the economic impact of the CVS project would be, or even whether he believes that obtaining information about the impact of large developments ought to be part of the work that our Planning Department does?

Sebastopol’s citizens, we who pay the continued cost of both this lawsuit, and Mr. Webster’s salary, have yet to be provided with an answer about why our Planning Director provided incomplete information for the traffic study, or about why his office never provided an economic impact analysis for the CVS plan.

The CVS lawsuit has already cost more than $100,000 and the end is nowhere in site. We have an eyesore at the crossroads to our community which, as a recent post notes, could more productively be used for parking, or housing, or any number of uses more productive than a vacant lot.

I support our City Council in extending our moratorium on all drive through windows in downtown Sebastopol. They were banned decades ago for restaurants, and that the ban did not specifically mention pharmacies was because there were no drive through pharmacies in the area at the time.

CVS is suing us to force us to take their drive through window--without which the deal does not make economic sense for them. That is why defending the drive through window policy is critical to sustaining out city’s character and defending our General Plan.

The CVS deal never made economic or environmental sense to the City of Sebastopol either. It is a shame that Kenyon Webster, Sebastopol’s Planning Director, failed to do his job and inform our elected officials of this.