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PrintStaples issue on council agenda
Sonoma City Councilmember Ken Brown has placed an item on the Monday, April 4, meeting agenda to discuss a possible change in the city's development code to address the issue of what is commonly called "big box stores."
The item is a direct response to plans by Staples to build a 14,000-square-foot store in the former Holder Ford building at the intersection of Highway 12, West Napa Street and Riverside Drive. The site has been vacant since Holder closed the agency at the direction of Ford Motor Company last year.
In an announcement released Thursday, Brown said, "Proposals such as the one brought forward by Staples (are) of such magnitude, with the potential of significantly affecting the small town character of the City of Sonoma and its core business, (that they) may need to be subjected to more extensive analysis and study than the City's current development code requires."
Brown did not express an opinion about Staples in announcing the agenda item, but he did say he has received considerable constituent concern from people opposed to and upset about the imminent Staples opening.
According to a company spokesperson, Staples has signed a lease for the Holder Ford property and expects to open the store "later this year." Planning Director David Goodison has said that a retail store such as Staples is a conforming use and does not require planning commission approval.
The company has submitted remodeling plans and will have to submit to design review for any exterior façade changes and signs. The site has ample parking in the lot behind the building, and Goodison also said no traffic study will be required for the site.
Former mayor and three-term city council member Larry Barnett said there is no "big box" specification in the city's development code and he was skeptical one could easily be adopted, arguing that Friedman's Home Improvement, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy are all nearly as big or bigger than the Holder building. Barnett said adopting a zoning change to restrict such buildings "would require a general plan amendment."
Barnett also questioned whether any company that was not of significant size could afford to lease the building. "I mean, what's going in there otherwise?" he asked. "What are we going to do, have a vacant building there."
A Staples spokesman said the store will offer full-service copying and printing services, along with computer set-up and repair and 7,000 products, including "great savings on core necessities for small businesses," including printer ink and toner, computers, accessories and countless other office products.
Staples stores are open seven days a week until 9 p.m.
Public reaction to the news has been swift and impassioned, generating a flood of letters to the editor, most in opposition to the store. Many of the letters express the fear that the office service stores currently in Sonoma, including Sonoma Valley Office Supply, Copy Store & More and Patt's Copy World, will be driven out of business.
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I don't like the idea of Staples at all. The small town quaintness is nearly all gone. Traffic at that intersection is already overcrowded, add Staples to the mix and it will be more frustrating trying to go a mile in less the 6 minutes with the nearly constant back up on Napa St. I had thought that a Bowling Alley would be great there. There hasn't been one here in years. We have to go to Petaluma, or elsewhere to bowl. It is a perfect spot. Staples would take business away from our local businesses. I don't see this working out for those of us who will be affected by having to pass it daily on our way to shop at the locally owned, Sonoma Market. Its just too impersonal for a town that relies on tourists.
It would be too bad to have local businesses that are essentially benign get forced out of business by a big box chain yet, overall Sonoma's economy is based on elite, high-end tourism which means that consumer prices here are substantially higher here than Petaluma or Santa Rosa. Since prices over-all in Sonoma are driven up by the tourist economy big box stores would be good to counteract that trend. The population in the valley is made up of plenty of people who would love to not have to drive and burn a quarter tank of gas just to get decent prices. I'd suggest along 8th Street East or 5th Street West: a Grocery Outlet, mini Wal-Mart and any number of others that would drive prices down in the valley. If locals want to fight big boxes on the basis of town character then we must ask: who is that character for? This is a class issue and people who don't and are not able to participate in the upper class economy don't really care about "town character" or the fate of high priced establishments as they are out of reach anyway. Local businesses can rally support however by indexing their prices to Petaluma and Santa Rosa, and landlords can back off commercial rent rates and then we can have our ambience and an equitable economy that includes all valley residents. Yes, strip development and big box stores are cheesy and inauthentic yet citizens who are unable to shop at Whole Foods or on the Plaza, and who buy their clothes at thrift stores (thank you Anna) would love to have a price break in Sonoma. A broad based movement against big box stores must show some give by the beneficiaries of the tourist economy, other wise it will be clear that saving Sonoma would really mean saving the closed-loop tourist cash cow. Furthermore, the ethics of big box shopping versus sources of stock market generated wealth are probably about equal. In the end economies are about target audiences and it would be nice to broaden the Sonoma audience.
The population of Sonoma is too small to support a Staples. It will not make a profit. Before that happens half a dozen local mom and pop independents will go out of business. After Staples leaves what will follow them? Walmart?
Office Max couldn't stay in business on Santa Rosa Ave. in Santa Rosa. Why does Staples think they need an outlet in the small town of Sonoma?
The only way that Staples can stay in business in Sonoma is if we shop there instead of patronizing the smaller and often more costly stores. It is not Staples that will put other stores out of business. It is us.
I think our community is on the horns of a dilemma. Although a Staples store in the Holder location will indeed be an eyesore (all the other so-called big box stores are discreetly located in shopping centers) how can the council justify showing such discrimination to Staples and for that matter to the owners of the Holder property?
I can see that a new ordinance is called for but in the case of Staples I think that horse is already out of the barn unless we want to invite a lawsuit from one or both of the parties concerned.
It's too bad.
Susan Goldstein