Pharmacy is set to move to a new, smaller location at Vasona Station

Longs seeks a use permit for the Rinconada location

Neighbors vow to protest

By Jeff Kearns

Rinconada Pharmacy's legal battles are over, after the owners agreed to settle their dispute with the landlord and move to a new store.

Pharmacy owners David and Vivian Matsuo announced recently that they signed a lease for a new store, albeit a smaller one, at nearby Vasona Station.

And neighbors, who have blasted Longs Drugs for trying to open a new drugstore in the pharmacy's space, say they're planning to show up en masse when Longs tries to get approval from the Planning Commission next month to open a store.

A Superior Court judge handed the Matsuos a loss in court last month, upholding their landlord's eviction request.

Los Angeles-based Duckett-Wilson Management Company, which owns half of the Rinconada Hills Shopping Center (Safeway owns the other half) first handed the Rinconada Pharmacy a 30-day eviction notice in May.

Duckett-Wilson says the pharmacy never responded to requests to renew the lease until it was too late--that is, after the company had already signed a lease with Longs.

The Matsuos originally filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in December seeking to keep their lease, which Duckett-Wilson said had expired. Duckett-Wilson filed an unlawful detainer in Municipal Court, and the Matsuo's countered by filing to have the two cases combined in Superior Court.

The judge denied that request, which means Rinconada Pharmacy must be out of the shopping center by the end of August. After that, the Matsuos agreed to settle the Superior Court case and move out of the shopping center.

"We were under the impression that we could consolidate the cases, but the verdict came back against us," David Matsuo said. "We wanted a trial, but we had to settle to make an organized transfer. And being a health-care professional with all these patients and physicians depending on me, I said I couldn't risk that kind of scenario."

The new store, at Vasona Station on Winchester Boulevard, isn't far from the old one, but is only about half the size of the pharmacy's current 4,000-square-foot store.

That means the Matsuos will have to cut back much of their merchandise that isn't directly related to medicine.

"We won't be running a full-line drug store," David Matsuo says. "We'll have to downsize it into a medical supply store and pharmacy." The store carries other general-merchandise items, such as greeting cards, gifts, and candy.

Rinconada Pharmacy is the only compounding pharmacy in the West Valley, and one of the last in the county. The pharmacy can make customized prescriptions and dosages for patients, or mix compounds that aren't commercially available.

Matsuo says the pharmacy will keep its seven full- and part-time employees when it makes the move. "I've got a commitment to the staff to keep them all."

The Matsuos have owned and operated the 30-year-old pharmacy for the last 12 years.

But local residents, who say they depend on the pharmacy and are thankful to have it in their neighborhood, say they're not happy about seeing the business go and that they'll fight Longs every step of the way when it applies to take over the space.

"Longs shouldn't be in there to begin with," said Jan Pasternak, one of the most vocal opponents of the drug store chain. "The town shouldn't let them in. That area can't support a Longs, so that store is going to close within a year. We want the town to say no to Longs. I'm so disgusted by all this, but now we just have to depend on the town. And the town has to do what the residents want."

"We've come to terms," is all Patrick Conway, Duckett-Wilson's leasing manager for the property, wanted to say about the settlement.

Conway confirms that the company has entered into a lease agreement with Longs for the former pharmacy space and the liquor store next door.

Duckett-Wilson plans to move the liquor store elsewhere in the shopping center, into a space formerly occupied by a Bank of America branch. That move is set to happen later this year, pending approvals from the town and the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The combined size of the two stores is about 7,000 square feet.

Longs, which still needs a conditional use permit from the town before it can open a store, is set for an application hearing in front of the Planning Commission.

Longs initially wanted to sell alcohol, but dropped that part of the application out of fears that it would be too problematic.

Neighbors and business owners, who say they've gathered more than 1,000 signatures opposing a new Longs, are vowing to show up at the hearing and voice their opposition to the new drug store.

The hearing is set for Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

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