On Tuesday, the Oakley Planning Commission approved the Oakley Shops at Laurel Fields which will bring a Safeway and shops to the City of Oakley.
The vote was approved in a 3-0 vote with Diego Verduzco, Leonard price and Jeanne Krieg voting in support. Commissioners Oleskii Chuiko and Jimmy Ramirez were absent.
Back in March, Safeway officially submitted its plans for an Oakley location. On Tuesday, the planning commission will discuss the project located at Laurel at O’Hara where they will discuss the Tentative Parcel Map, Conditional Use Permit, Variance, and Design Review.
The planning commission is the final decision making body all four requests made by the applicant.
After the staff presentation, Kreig asked if they knew who would run the gas station or who the drive-thru operators were. Staff replied that the only operator they knew at this time was Safeway.
“One comment regarding the cheese rock, thank you for incorporating that, I had more comments about the cheese rock, I didn’t even know what it was so I had to go out and look at it,” stated Krieg. “Its going to be our public art. I am happy to see that incorporated into the landscaping.”
No other comments were made. The commission then voted 3-0.
Background:
The project is on an 8.77-acre site in an undeveloped parcel along Laurel Road at O’Hara Avenue. The gravel pad has historically been used as an overflow parking lot for the adjacent Laurel Baseball Fields.
The proposed project would result in the subdivision of an approximately 8.77-acre parcel into two separate parcels: Parcel 1 at 7.72 acres, which would make up a majority of the shopping center (Safeway and retail/restaurant pads); and Parcel 2 at 1.05 acres which would sit at the southwest corner of the site and consist of the gas station and convenience store.
The two proposed drive-through restaurants are sited in the northwest and southeast corners of the site. Both drive-through lanes are adjacent to O’Hara Avenue and Laurel Road, respectively. Access to the drive-through pharmacy is located between the Safeway grocery store and Shop 6 on the west side of grocery store. The gas station is located near the southwest corner with the convenience store fronting Laurel Road and the gasoline pumps just north of the store.
As proposed, the project includes seven separate buildings totaling 81,728 square feet of floor area, five points of vehicular access (two on Laurel Road and three on O’Hara Avenue), 360 parking spaces with up to 73 electric vehicle stations, 19 bike rack spaces and three bike lockers, 122 new trees and hundreds of shrubs and grasses, full frontage improvements along O’Hara Avenue to connect to the existing sidewalk to the north, and completion of frontage improvements along Laurel Road.
According to the staff report, this site was previously approved for a Safeway shopping center in the early 2000’s and that entitlement expired many years ago. Since that time, new ordinances have been adopted that serve to ensure certain commercial uses are designed and operated in ways to make them more compatible with surrounding areas.
Oakley Shops at Laurel Fields Documents:
- Staff Report
- Vicinity Map
- Notice of Public Hearing
- Project Rendering
- Applicant’s Plans
- Notice of Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration
- Initial Study/Mitigated Declaration with Appendices
- Proposed Resolution
- Mitigation Monitoring Program
Previous Story
- July 2 – Planning Commission to Talk Oakley Shops at Laurel Ballfields
- March 8 – Safeway Officially Submits Plans for Oakley Location
5 comments
Oakley and Brentwood are a lost cause now. Build, build, build. Never mind the traffic and the crimes this place will bring.
You’re welcome to spend your own money buying up all the unused or underused lots surrounding these two cities to prevent development on them.
You can also show up at every Planning commission meeting to speak out against and urge the cities to deny new developments. They’ll note your dissent and still approve the projects as the meet local and state laws.
Follow the money.
I agree about Oakley continuing to allow development despite the worsening traffic issues.
One only has to look at the dumpster fire that E. Cypress Rd. has become, when it comes to traffic congestion during the morning and evening commute hours, and the school dropoff/pickup times. And yet, they’ve green-lighted how many new subdivisions/developments along that corridor?
Take a look here…you’ll be shocked: https://www.ci.oakley.ca.us/departments/planning-zoning/current-projects/
Oakley has a familiar problem/fault: it allows new residential subdivisions without requiring that the infrastructure needed to support them (particularly streets) are constructed FIRST. Thus we have traffic bottlenecks because the street improvements lag the subdivisions by years.
Case in point: widening of Laurel Road east of O’hara was only recently and belatedly done but there is STILL a bottleneck due to the unfinished segment between O’Hara and Rose where that WAPA power line runs. When is that going to be finished, city fathers?