Retain the 225 parking spaces for Cloverly Safeway
Casey Anderson, Chair, Montgomery County Planning Board
Please sign the petition to oppose plans before the Planning Board to develop part of the Cloverly Safeway parking lot into a fast food restaurant. The development would remove 41 parking spaces from the parking lot on Parcel N5 which is located at New Hampshire Avenue and Cloverly Street. The 41 parking spaces are part of the 225 parking spaces required by the zoning ordinance for the Cloverly Safeway. The operation of a profitable full service grocery store at this site requires the the 41 spaces, and without the spaces, the grocery store eventually would be closed. Shoppers need the 41 spaces during busy periods before holidays and storms. Also, many of the spaces are closer to the Safeway entrance and give shoppers sidewalk access to the store without walking through the parking lot. The Planning Board must approve a waver stating that the 41 spaces are not required and then approve the fast food restaurant plans.
The Cloverly Civic Association has voted overwhelmingly to oppose Safeway's proposed reduction of 41 spaces from the Cloverly Safeway parking area. Cloverly Civic has closely followed the development process since May of 2017, and on January 28, 2019, met again to consider changes to the plan and confirmed their opposition to the plan.
Cloverly Safeway is now operated by Albertsons Companies and owned by investors. Safeway did a parking study from September 14 to 17, 2017. The study showed that the peak parking usage for the period was 96 vehicles on Sunday, September 17, 2017. Their model predicts a peak usage of 140 vehicles would occur on the day before Christmas. Based on the study, Safeway concluded that they could sell Parcel N5 containing 41 parking places and leaving 178 spaces (plus 6 spaces for shopping carts). Safeway is requesting a waiver from the zoning ordinance requirement of 225 parking spaces. They plan to ground lease or sell the property to Burger King to build a fast food restaurant. One entrance/exit would be Safeway's New Hampshire Avenue entrance. This would cause congestion for those accessing the Cloverly Safeway.
The Cloverly Civic Association tested the model by doing an actual count of the number of cars parked in the Cloverly Safeway on December 24, 2018. The peak count was 204 vehicles. Without Parcel N5, 26 vehicles would not be able to park at Safeway. The number of shoppers has increased more than was expected and demand for parking is increasing.
Read the petition for more problems caused by reducing the parking to allow the development by Burger King. You may have observed that Cloverly Safeway is not being operated at its full potential to serve our community. You may also have noticed that Briggs Chaney and Del Mercado have lost their grocery stores. Safeway under Albertsons has decided not to close Safeway. Instead, they are working to improve the store, to get it back to running at its full potential.
Do we want to risk the closing of Safeway by allowing the reduction in parking needed to bring the store to its full potential? If the Planning Board approves the parking reduction, the site would not be profitable for Safeway/Albertsons to operate a grocery store or for another grocery chain with the services being offered by Safeway.
Four things you can do:
1. Write the Planning Board of your concerns. Any individual or organization may submit a written statement for consideration by the Planning Board. Written comments must be received in the Chair’s office by February 6 at 9 am, referencing the hearing date of February 7 and item 3, to be reviewed by the Board and included in the official record of the hearing. Comments should be transmitted via e-mail to MCP-Chair@mncppc-mc.org, faxed to Chair Casey Anderson at 301-495-1320, or addressed to: Casey Anderson, Chair, Montgomery County Planning Board, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910.
2. Sign Up to testify See instructions. Sign up to Testify See location below.
3. Show your support by attending the hearing on February 7, 2019, at 9 am
Location: Planning Board M-NCPPC 8787 Georgia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910
Park in rear of building and use metered spaces .75 per hour.
Enter conference room lobby through the glass doors on the rear of building.
4. Sign the Online Petition
Please use the comments area to highlight or add your concerns.
Please sign the petition by Monday, February 4th. Thank you.
Petition by
Sponsored by
To:
Casey Anderson, Chair, Montgomery County Planning Board
From:
[Your Name]
PETITION: Please deny the applications: Site Plan Amendment 81999004B New Hampshire Ave. Restaurant Redevelopment: Preliminary Plan No. 120180260 and Site Plan No. 820180090
We, the signers of this petition, urge the Planning Board to retain the 225 parking spaces required by the zoning law for the Cloverly Safeway and retain the condition requiring “41 spaces on adjoining Parcel N5 (the adjacent former bank property) reserved for the grocery store by a shared parking easement” (as stated in the 1999 Planning Board Opinion Preliminary Plan 1-98001 and Site Plan 899004). In 1998 Safeway planned to close the store but the Cloverly community worked with Safeway and they agreed to instead expand the store from 20,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet with 225 parking spaces. The zoning law required 41 more spaces in addition to the 178 spaces on the Safeway property. So, Safeway purchased an adjacent bank property to provide the 41 spaces. Ten spaces were left on the bank property to support a small bank or similar business. The parking arrangement gives the community the best access to the Cloverly Safeway and allows an additional use of the bank property.
In 2015 the Safeway chain was sold to Albertsons and change of ownership has temporarily been detrimental to the operation of the store. A study in 2017 of the parking lot identified decline in usage of the parking lot. However, during the past year service and operation of the store has improved along with increased parking usage. In the study, Safeway had predicted the parking lot peak use for the day before Christmas to be 140 spaces, but actual peak number of vehicles parked was 204! If parking was reduced to 178, 26 shoppers would not have a parking space. The new plan does not allow the community adequate access to the Cloverly Safeway and the restaurant operation introduces congestion to the access of the Cloverly Safeway.
In addition to full component of groceries, meat, bakery, and deli products, Safeway services include a pharmacy, Starbucks, a bank, as well as selling school supplies and many other household items. The trend in grocery stores is for larger stores. In two neighboring shopping centers, Briggs Chaney and Del Mercado, two full-service grocery stores have been closed and lost to their neighborhoods. If parking is limited, Safeway or any future store cannot reach its potential and will be closed and lost to our community.
Safeway is dedicated to improving the store and is in the process of upgrading product offerings by adding 1,500 products to better serve the community. Safeway is planning a modernization of the store within the next two years. The store manager has agreed to meet with representatives of Cloverly to improve community relations and consider the products and services desired by the community.
The Cloverly area is residential with limited parking in the commercial area and because of the Paint Branch Special Protection Area, Safeway is limited in its ability to add parking in the future. Safeway needs this parking to operate and keep a viable store that serves the Cloverly community and benefits the Safeway/Albertsons Company. Please deny the applications: Site Plan Amendment 81999004B New Hampshire Ave. Restaurant Redevelopment: Preliminary Plan No. 120180260 and Site Plan No. 820180090.