Neighbors Battle Kirkland Superstore -- New Safeway Would Overload Area, Say Critics Of 5-Acre Project

KIRKLAND - Some people become emotional when they think of a new 24-hour Safeway superstore, with bakery, florist shop, deli and pharmacy going up in Kirkland's South Rose Hill - and their tears are not of joy.

A group of residents in that neighborhood have waged a long fight against the city and the supermarket chain, arguing that a 53,000-square-foot store would substantially increase traffic, noise, pollution and environmental damage to their neighborhood of older houses off 85th Street.

But Safeway's application has been supported by Kirkland's Planning Department and city hearing examiner.

According to the examiner's report, the store would "transform a generally underdeveloped site into a stable commercial use" that would fit in with the businesses along the Northeast 85th Street corridor.

Tonight, the issue goes before the City Council, which may vote on the zoning application.

Deirdre Johnson prefers that the council schedule another public hearing. Sitting at her kitchen table, she leafs through stacks of evidence, most of which council members will see. Johnson contends the reports, memos and letters support her case against rezoning the 5.2-acre plot on Northeast 85th Street, between 124th and 126th avenues, from office and residential use to community business.

Just thinking about the time she has spent researching laws, gathering public records and writing reports in hopes of keeping the store out of her neighborhood is enough to bring Johnson to tears. She has a petition against the store with 100 signatures.

"If anybody asks where you went on your vacation, I'm going to say City Hall," she said, her voice cracking. "I would rather have gone to Hawaii."

Her rallying complaint has been traffic. The store is expected to bring in at least 5,000 more cars and delivery trucks daily, according to an environmental report prepared for the city of Kirkland.

Those numbers worry parents whose children will share the narrow residential streets - without sidewalks - as they walk to nearby Rose Hill Elementary School.

The school's PTA is opposing the proposal - the first time, says PTA president Diane Collum, she can remember the organization voting to become involved in a strictly community issue.

However, says City Planner Pat Davis, most of the letters sent to the city recently have backed a South Rose Hill Safeway. Supporters argue that the store will create new jobs, capture sales dollars that might otherwise be spent in Bellevue or Redmond and give loyal Safeway customers another store in which to shop.

Safeway's downtown store, at 355 Kirkland Ave., will be closing because officials of the California-based chain think the location was too small. The new store is expected to bring Kirkland an estimated $30,000 a year - twice the downtown store's sales-tax revenue.

Steve Kaiser, who grew up in South Rose Hill, notes that occasionally the City Council has come out on the side of the neighbors. In 1987 and 1988, the council voted not to rezone the same parcel of land for a car dealership. Kaiser's father led that neighborhood fight.

But City Planner Davis points out there are differences between the dealership and Safeway - the former had wanted to build a business office on the southern portion of the property, too close to houses.

On the other hand, she says, Safeway revised its initial plans after the city raised environmental concerns and agreed to place its store closer to the center of the property. That would allow for a buffer of trees and plants between the store and the single-family homes surrounding the property.

"We have met all the city's requirements," says Cherie Myers, director of public affairs for Safeway. "There is opposition to the project, but I believe that opposition has been opposed to any business in the site. I don't think it's directed toward Safeway."

Myers notes that Safeway already owns part of the 5.2 acres and plans to buy the rest if the council approves its application. The remaining land is divided among three owners, who are willing to sell to Safeway.

The owners say they're being penalized with higher property taxes for land they can't develop commercially because of neighbors' objections.

Leslie Smith, who owns more than an acre there, wonders how long neighbors can keep businesses from buying his land. He says he receives a dozen inquiries a year.

"The hillside has gone pretty much commercial; it's not the old Rose Hill anymore," Smith says, adding that when his parents bought the property in 1948 it was surrounded by orchards and farms. Now it's the last open space left in the neighborhood.

"We moved out because we couldn't take it," he says.