If you want to sip a Starbucks latte while you do your grocery
shopping at Albertsons, you’re going to have to leave town, the San
Juan City Council decided Tuesday night when it approved a ban
on
”
big box
”
and chain retail stores in the city forever.
San Juan Bautista – If you want to sip a Starbucks latte while you do your grocery shopping at Albertsons, you’re going to have to leave town, the San Juan City Council decided Tuesday night when it approved a ban on “big box” and chain retail stores in the city forever.
The ordinance was necessary to preserve the small businesses scattered throughout downtown San Juan, said City Councilman Dan Reed.
“Mainly, it gives the restaurants and so forth in our area the chance to continue providing their unique services,” Reed said.
In addition to bulk stores like Costco or Target, the ban prohibits “formula” retailers from coming to San Juan. These include any retailer that must have the same color scheme, logo, and products at all locations.
Employees at San Juan businesses said they were happy the ordinance passed Tuesday night.
“It doesn’t bother us that there are stores like Safeway and Albertsons in Hollister, because that doesn’t affect us,” said The Windmill Market manager Alicia Andrade. “But I think it’s a good thing they’re going to ban them from San Juan. I think it would absolutely be stiff competition for us if they came,” she said.
The new ban will replace a temporary emergency ordinance that served the same purpose. The first ordinance suspended approval of applications for large-scale retail stores, and was adopted in Dec. 2002 when concern arose over the possibility of a Subway sandwich shop coming to San Juan, City Manager Larry Cain said. With the temporary ordinance expiring in December, the City Council needed to pass a permanent measure to ensure the big box stores could never build in San Juan.
Cain said there weren’t any specific big box stores looking to operate in San Juan Bautista; passing the ordinance was due more to “nervous anticipation” of stores coming in in the future.
The absence of big box stores like Super Wal-Mart, and chains like Starbucks or Jamba Juice, is what many locals believe keeps the town’s most important source of revenue – tourism – alive.
“We’re just hoping to preserve the small-town feel that San Juan Bautista has. The council truly feels that that’s the reason we have the tourism in San Juan. What we’re trying to avoid are those strip malls that have popped up every where and stripped the identity from other California towns,” councilman Arturo Medina said.
There was little discussion and no public comment made before the council members voted to approve the ordinance Tuesday night. Councilman Dan Reed said this was indicative of the support the ordinance has had throughout its progression.
“When we originally had the temporary ordinance two years ago, there was quite a bit of comment, but it was mainly in favor of not having big boxes in the area. As we moved towards the (new) ordinance, there was very little discussion at all,” Reed said.
As for the permanence of the newly passed ordinance, it will last at least as long as the city council members agree with it, said Medina.
“My understanding is, it was five to none in the planning commission (votes) and it was five to none in the city council. So there would have to be some pretty major changes (on the council and planning commission) for the ordinance to change in the future,” Medina said.
Jessica Quandt is a staff writer for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
