Home > Resource Center > In the News Home > Greenbelt Alliance in the News

Greenbelt Alliance In the News

February 21, 2005

Home Depot eyes SR again

Past opponents line up to fight south-end store plan

Home Depot, the Atlanta-based chain that lost a head-to-head battle with homegrown favorite Yardbirds to build a superstore in Santa Rosa's north end seven years ago, filed plans this month to build a store on the city's south end.

It's likely the project won't come before the city for consideration for at least nine months.

But hardware store competitors and environmental advocates already are lining up to fight Home Depot's plans to build a big-box store at one of the city's busiest intersections on Santa Rosa Avenue.

"It is definitely going to be controversial," said Santa Rosa planning consultant Jim Hummer, who advised Home Depot during its failed bid to build in Santa Rosa in 1998.

"It seems all the dynamics are still the same," Hummer said. "Traffic will be the 64-dollar question. That will be the cornerstone."

The project likely will face other formidable obstacles. Several groups, including Yardbirds and a coalition of environmental and housing advocates, have been closely monitoring Home Depot's plans to move into Santa Rosa.

The last time Home Depot tried to build in Santa Rosa, local hardware chains Yardbirds and Friedman's joined forces with 22 other hometown businesses to stymie its plans.

"I expect they will be part of the equation," Hummer said.

Home Depot wants to build a 101,635-square-foot store on a flag-shaped parcel that fronts Santa Rosa and Yolanda avenues. The project includes a 30,321-square-foot garden center and a parking lot with 555 spaces.

The store would be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, although Home Depot officials say they eventually may seek to keep it open 24 hours a day.

"We're hoping to open sometime in 2007," Home Depot spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said.

The battle lines over the project are already being drawn.

Yardbirds is expected to be Home Depot's primary adversary.

John Headley, owner of the chain of 11 Yardbirds stores, was the driving force behind a coalition of 24 businesses that fought Home Depot's plans to build in Santa Rosa in 1996. Bowing to opposition, Home Depot withdrew its plans to build on Santa Rosa's northern end in 1998.

Two years later, Yardbirds lost a battle to stop Home Depot from building in Windsor.

Last year, Yardbirds lost again. Yardbirds spent $445,000 on two unsuccessful elections aimed at blocking efforts by Lowe's, a national home improvement chain based in North Carolina, to build a superstore in Cotati.

Santa Rosa political consultant Herb Williams, who directed Yardbirds' fight in Santa Rosa against Home Depot, said he has not yet discussed a strategy with Headley on how to deal with Home Depot's current plans.

"I have no idea what's going to be done. We need to see what they're doing first," Williams said.

Headley did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

A coalition of environmental and housing groups is gearing up to fight the project, said Kelly Brown, a field representative for the Greenbelt Alliance. Other members include the Sierra Club, the Institute for Ecology and Economy, and the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group.

The Highway 101 corridor already is oversaturated with big-box home improvement stores and doesn't need another, Kelly said.

Seven large home improvement stores, including two Home Depots and three Yardbirds outlets, currently line the freeway between Petaluma and Windsor. The number could soon grow to 10, with Lowe's planning to build stores in Cotati and Petaluma, along with the Home Depot proposed in Santa Rosa.

Instead of another home improvement store on Santa Rosa Avenue, Kelly said the environmental coalition would like to see housing on the Home Depot site. The 10.3-acre property, owned by Windsor resident John Hulsman, currently is used as a parking lot for a trucking company and a mobile home sales lot.

"We don't have a big-box problem in this county. We have an affordable housing problem and we'd like to see housing on that (Santa Rosa) site," she said.

Kelly said her coalition of environmental and housing advocates also would like to see the site accommodate a grocery store and services that could handle residential growth projected in the southeast area.

About 25 percent of the Home Depot site - enough room to build about 45 housing units - is currently designated for residential development, Community Development Director Wayne Goldberg said.

Under city policy, Home Depot would be required to build that housing elsewhere in the city if it seeks to avoid building it on the site, Goldberg said.

"We don't want to lose any acreage we have set aside for medium-density housing," he said.

Traffic is expected to be the primary issue Home Depot must resolve.

The site, on Santa Rosa Avenue a quarter-mile south of Costco, overlooks some of the busiest traffic corridors in Sonoma County.

More than 32,000 cars a day travel on Santa Rosa Avenue past the site. Slow traffic on nearby Highway 101, which handles more than 100,000 cars a day, spills over to clog city streets during peak periods.

Traffic in the area is projected to grow with the future Farmers Lane extension, a proposed four-lane crosstown shortcut that some day will connect Highway 101 and Santa Rosa Avenue to Bennett, Rincon and Sonoma valleys.

The new Home Depot store would sit at the terminus of the Farmers Lane extension, which is expected to accommodate 15,000 to 20,000 cars a day on Yolanda Avenue when the $18.5 million project is completed.

Home Depot alone is expected to add thousands of motorists to those totals. Company officials estimate the store will attract 4,700 customers a day.

Traffic and housing are not the only issues that opponents may raise in hopes of derailing Home Depot's plans.

Goldberg said he's heard talk that opponents plan to question the level of wages and benefits the company pays, an argument he expects will also be brought up later this year when the city reviews Wal-Mart's plans to build a store off Stony Point Road.

The typical Home Depot store in Sonoma County employs 150 to 175 full-time workers, and generates approximately $50 million a year in sales. A store can produce about $500,000 in annual sales tax revenues for the city in which it's located.

###