The Willow Glen Resident

Safeway closes the traffic easement behind its WG store

Neighbors fear intersection could go from bad to worse

By Mary Spicuzza

Safeway officials say that the final stages of its store-expansion project at the corner of Meridian and Hamilton avenues are running smoothly, and the store is due to re-open next month. But some neighborhood shoppers are stepping forward to voice their frustration with Safeway for its decision to close the property's traffic easement--and their anger at the city of San Jose for allowing it to happen.

"My biggest concerns are safety issues and increased traffic at that intersection," neighborhood resident Dick Schwartz says. "The corner of Hamilton and Meridian is already a high-traffic area."

For more than 10 years, the traffic easement behind the Dry Creek Shopping Center opposite Safeway has served as a link between the two shopping centers. Schwartz says the route has always enabled him to shop at the Dry Creek center easily. He worries that now he will be forced to weave in and out of traffic on the busy city streets.

According to Carol Hamilton, senior planner for the city of San Jose, the easement's popularity with commuters was part of the problem. Hamilton says cars and larger trucks would speed along the route and into the nearby center. She says it was also plagued by litter and was often used as an encampment area by transients.

Hamilton concedes that a traffic easement at the center was previously required, but says property owner Peter Danna never complied with legal conditions for the permit. Hence, the site's easement requirement was removed just before Safeway proposed the expansion. Hamilton says the decision was made because the route was never up to code, not because of favoritism toward Safeway.

Safeway spokeswoman Deborah Lambert did not return several phone calls for this article.

This conflict is just the latest round in the ongoing battle Safeway has faced since it began its expansion project. In order to replace the existing 25,000-square-foot store with one twice its size, the store had to file a lawsuit against Danna to obtain the additional property required. Safeway also faced opposition from the Dry Creek Homeowners Association, whose members endorsed the development only after the city's report indicated that the expansion would have a less-than-significant impact on traffic in surrounding neighborhoods.

But many neighbors are still skeptical.

"I feel the route was a benefit to the community," sais Dennis Chinn, owner of Coffee Cantata in the Dry Creek Shopping Center. "We've gotten a lot of complaints [about the closure]," he added. "But all of us shopkeepers are willing to go along with neighborhood opinion."

Still, some think that process has been circumvented. Neighbors such as Schwartz believe that public input over the closure of the easement has been limited.

"I understand people's frustration," Hamilton says. "But that easement was never in compliance, and it's not clear it ever could be."

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