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Jamba Juice Can't Win Store Approval Next To Starbucks
Neighbors, food advocates protest Argonaut proposal
Tie-breaking vote absent
By Steve Enders
City planners took a page of advice from the recent Starbucks Coffee episode and moved it over to an application for Jamba Juice to move into the Argonaut Shopping Center.
But limiting hours of operation and outdoor seating and demanding strict trash collection wasn't enough to ease the minds of three city planning commissioners. After an hour and a half of discussion, the board came to a 3-3 tie and couldn't approve or deny the juice store's application because the seventh commissioner, George Roupe, was absent from the June 23 meeting.
The application, consequently, is tabled until July 7, when the commission hopes to break the stalemate at another hearing.
Just like Starbucks, the enormously popular San Francisco-based juice bar is finding out the hard way how difficult it's been recently for a specialty chain to locate in Saratoga's remodeled, major shopping center. Jamba has stores in adjacent neighborhoods on Los Gatos Boulevard, at El Paseo Shopping Center in San Jose and in Cupertino at The Oaks.
Commissioner Erna Jackman said she's never been to a Jamba Juice, but tried going to the El Paseo store during a recent lunch hour. She was scared away by the throngs of teenagers that afternoon before she could order a drink.
"I have real concerns," Jackman said. "I looked over the age group at the Jamba Juice on Campbell Avenue, and it was all high schoolers. I'm afraid we're going to have Saratoga High School there."
But it wasn't Jackman's fear of high schoolers that persuaded the others, including fellow freshman commissioners Ann Waltonsmith and Lisa Kurasch, to vote against the plan. Rather, it was a handful of Saratoga residents led by Starbucks-slayer Chris Hawks, who lives near the shopping center, and another resident whose daughter contracted a near-deadly food-borne illness at the hands of some bad Odwalla-brand juice in 1997.
Laurie Girand, a Saratogan whose daughter contracted a strain of E. coli during the Odwalla outbreak, has committed herself--and won national awards--to working against the sale of unpasteurized juices. She came armed with data and a new Food and Drug Administration labeling packet that's now used on juice containers such as Odwalla. She also threatened to picket the Jamba Juice store if it opened.
Girand's protest prompted some commissioners to ask for an amendment to the motion to approve the Jamba application contingent upon its posting a sign in the store or providing information on E. coli--a request that's not mandated by the FDA.
This request was fought by other commissioners, who argued that the Planning Commission can't regulate such matters, and can't do anything to force Jamba Juice to post signs in its store.
According to Jamba representatives, the store serves fresh-squeezed orange, carrot and wheat grass juice that is unpasteurized, but isn't allowed to sit and collect bacteria--it's squeezed, served and consumed.
On top of calls for signs, Hawks and other neighbors who helped modify a Starbucks application two weeks ago also protested, saying the store will bring increased traffic and litter to their neighborhood.
Additionally, the group was upset with the city and the Argonaut property owner for not presenting a retail plan, and not informing the residents of what stores are coming into the shopping center.
Because Starbucks and Jamba Juice are restaurants, they need a conditional-use permit to operate, unlike other retail stores, which only need a business license and a lease.
Community Development Director James Walgren said he's heard rumors of a Blockbuster Video store coming to the center as well, but the city hasn't been contacted yet, and the store wouldn't need to come before the Planning Commission anyway.
At its last meeting, Saratoga's City Council vowed to meet with city planners and the Argonaut landlord to discuss neighborhood concerns over the center. A meeting date is being worked out by the three sides.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
