Yucaipa City Council Delays Vote on Groceries Ordinance

Aug. 11–YUCAIPA — Traffic and economic studies must be done before the City Council will consider a proposal to restrict the amount of groceries superstores can sell.

Wal-Mart officials recently provided the City Council with new information, prompting the council to postpone a decision on the ordinance to late September.

City officials said they want to review Wal-Mart’s traffic and economic impact studies and conduct further reports before the council takes action.

The City Council decided by a 4-1 vote Monday to delay a decision on the ordinance until Sept. 26. Councilman Tom Masner opposed the delay.

The city hopes to have the additional studies completed by consultants by that meeting date, John McMains, Yucaipa’s community development director, said. “As often happens when you use quote-unquote experts for these studies you often get different conclusions,” McMains said by phone.

Wal-Mart has no specific plans to build a store in Yucaipa, but traditionally has been “opposed to these type of ordinances because they limit consumers’ choices,” Eric Berger, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said by phone.

“We are providing some information that we feel should be considered by the City Council as they evaluate possible impacts of our store in the community,” Berger said.

The proposed ordinance is a result of revisions to the city’s general plan made last year. The revisions included a provision that allows the city to create a policy restricting the amount of groceries superstores such as Wal-Mart can sell.

The ordinance would limit floor space to 10 percent for non-taxable goods, such as groceries, sold by retail establishments with more than 100,000 square feet, McMains said.

Despite recent population growth, Yucaipa still has no big-box stores.

In 2000, Yucaipa voters rejected plans to bring a Wal-Mart to the city.

McMains said the proposed ordinance is intended to allow smaller cities, such as Yucaipa, to maintain neighborhood shopping centers, with anchor stores such as Stater Bros. and Vons. Superstores take business from those neighborhood shopping centers, can put stores out of business and create blight, he said.

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