Vons will have to wait until Aug. 4 to know if they can go ahead with the construction of a new supermarket on the Island.
The Vons appeal hearing date was pushed back to August from the upcoming April 21 date due in part to Avalon’s City Council wanting more clarity on water allocation for the new Vons market.
“If I’m going to vote on something like that I’m going to make sure everything is correct,” said Councilman Richard Hernandez at a special Avalon City Council meeting on April 7.
Vons will have to wait until Aug. 4 to know if they can go ahead with the construction of a new supermarket on the Island.
The Vons appeal hearing date was pushed back to August from the upcoming April 21 date due in part to Avalon’s City Council wanting more clarity on water allocation for the new Vons market.
“If I’m going to vote on something like that I’m going to make sure everything is correct,” said Councilman Richard Hernandez at a special Avalon City Council meeting on April 7.
In December of last year, the Catalina Eucalyptus Sumner Association (CESA) sent a letter of appeal to Avalon’s City Council urging they reverse the Planning Commission’s approval of the new Vons project, which occurred in November.
The initial appeal hearing date was set for March 17, but due to public concerns over the environmental impact and the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) of the project, the appeal hearing was pushed back until April.
This delay offered Avalon a chance to revise the MND, re-circulate it for public comment and make further analysis on the project.
Now, further delay of the appeal will allow the City Council to get more answers about the project and allow the council to schedule a hearing with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in July.
Hernandez and three Avalon residents sent letters to the CPUC requesting an audit of Southern California Edison’s water allocation practices for the Vons project.
The CPUC forwarded their letters to the Department of Water and Audits (DWA), which conducted an investigation into Edison’s allocation practices and found that “there were no violations of SCE tariffs at the time the decision was made.”
Despite the audit’s findings and response, Hernandez said he wasn’t ‘sold’ and that further analysis of the situation was needed.
Initial water allocation estimates for the project were made when Avalon was in Stage 1 water rationing. Edison originally was going to allocate new water to the project from the existing fresh water supply.
Now, in Stage 2 rationing, Edison couldn’t honor that allocation and the project needed to find a source of water.
Currently, the project, as approved by Edison, is planning on transferring water from the Wilcox Nursery and the Golf Gardens, which are both owned by the Santa Catalina Island Company, to the new Vons location. The Golf Gardens will stay open but the Wilcox Nursery will be closing. The Island Company offered the water to Vons for the project.
The idea of transferring water from these locations was heavily opposed by a few residents in attendance, who voiced that it looked as though Vons was getting preferential treatment.
“If it’s right to transfer water from one property to another; I do great savings at my house, I got a great water allocation,” said Kathleen Carlisle, who is one of the residents that sent a letter.
“My bed and breakfast is using too much water. Can I transfer my water that I saved down to my bed and breakfast? I own both properties. Why can’t I do that? It seems like Vons is getting preferential treatment,” Carlisle said.
Hernandez voiced the same concerns and noted that the CPUC didn’t clarify if that was OK.
“In one part of SCE’s tariffs it says that no water goes from one property to another. It doesn’t say anything about this in the (CPUC) letter,” said Hernandez.
Despite the abundance of concerns, there was still an underlying feeling that the project was backed by the majority of people, but that the proper water allocation was needed before any official ruling should be made.
“I don’t believe there is anyone sitting on this panel that doesn’t want a new market,” said Councilman Joe Sampson.
“It’s a process. (Vons) saying that we are delaying it and holding things up, that isn’t true. We want to understand the water allocations better,” he said.
Safeway’s Vice President of Real Estate, Brad Braaten, was in attendance at the meeting and said that Vons has been doing everything asked of them and that pushing back the appeal felt like an unnecessary delay. “We’ve complied with everything the Planning Commission has asked us to do,” said Braaten.
“I’m just saying if we delay the project because of something that has been already asked and answered then what are the implications?” said Braaten.
Currently, for a new business to be constructed “they would need to apply for a (use of the) desalination plant that would provide them with fresh water, or if Edison said that their project wouldn’t require any new fresh water or that they would not be connected to the fresh water system,” said Avalon’s Planning Director, Amanda Cook.
