Safeway Project

The Safeway redevelopment on the corner of Howard, El Camino & Primrose Road was the initial impetus for the formation of the Citizens for a Better Burlingame.  The group was convinced that the plan proposed back in 1999 by Safeway was not in the best interest of our town.

Safeway is now bringing a significantly better plan to the city for consideration by the planning commission and ultimately by the city council.  The current timeline has the plan being in front of the city council by February 2010.  If all proceeds in accordance with plan the current store will be closed in early 2010 and the new store will open in time for the holidays in 2010.

You can download preliminary concept drawings of the proposed plan here.

Since the original plan was denied by both the Planning Commission (6-1) and the City Council (3-2) the CBB has engaged in public education forums on downtown developments across the country and also continued to work towards its mission to enhancing the Quality of Life in Burlingame, California.

The CBB is committed to work with Safeway to ensure that a new store is built that enhances the downtown area and is compatible with the city’s overall goals.  We participatied fully in the Working Group sessions that were aimed at defining exactly what the city and Safeway need for this project to be successful. In general we support the new proposed plan.

CBB Concerns with New Safeway Plan

On Monday January 11th, 2010 Safeway will bring its new plan to the Planning Commission for the final review and public hearing.  The proposed re-development of their lots, bounded by El Camino, Howard, Primrose & Fox Plaza Lanes , has benefited from more than 18 months of public input from the Safeway Working Group (SWG) that had representatives from 7 separate stakeholder groups including the Citizens for a Better Burlingame. 

As  an active participant in the SWG process the CBB feels that the proposed plan is a significant improvement over the existing store and is significantly better for Burlingame than the plan that was rejected by both the planning commission and the city council in 2003.

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Mixed Use | A Possible Solution for the Safeway Development

Following the successful Smart Growth forums, sponsored by the CBB, two local architects, Dan Ionescu and Martin Dreiling, have independently and separately developed intriguing mixed use proposals for the Safeway development site.  Both these proposals have incorporated residential, retail and office space in their plans.

Mr. Ionescu’s plan was presented to City Council and the Planning Commission in a public study session on November 10.  The Ionescu plan calls for approximately 300 residential units with all parking underground and retail space that exceeds Safeway’s original request.

Martin Dreiling and his firm CSS Architects have developed a more moderate ’transitional’ proposal that call for less than 100 residential units, and retail space and affords some ’on grade’ parking.

While neither of these plans are endorsed by the CBB, or even by Safeway, these proposals opens up a discussion about potential uses for this site that will fulfill the mission of CBB that is to make our downtown even better.

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Safeway Working Group

For the past 15 months the Citizens for a Better Burlingame, along with representatives from 5 other stakeholder groups and Safeway, have been meeting to define the parameters for a development on the Safeway site at Howard and El Camino.  On August 19th the working group will present their recommendations at a joint City Council & Planning Commission meeting.

CBB members and their guests joined us on August 14th  to hear from the CBB representatives on the Safeway working group, review the current draft proposals of the working group and provided input to the process. The questions, answers and discussion after the power point presentation were invaluable.

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War of Words

Since the Safeway Working Group presented their findngs to the joint Planning Commission & City Council study session in September there has been a flurry of emails and letters to and from council members and Safeway.

Mayor O’Mahony recently circulated a letter to select residents urging them to voice their opposition to anything other than ’at grade’ parking on the Safeway development. 

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