Council OKs consignment shop at mall, Comp Plan hearing

WASILLA — Wasilla City Council unanimously approved leasing Meta Rose Square space to a women’s consignment shop, despite fears from another clothing store owner there that it will spell the death of both businesses.

Mimi’s Closet representative Jane Slaughter told council Monday she hoped it wouldn’t approve the three-year lease of shop space to Younique Boutique for $91,800 because she didn’t think the market could support both shops.

“Mimi’s Closet’s success will be affected,” Slaughter said of the high-end designer store born on the second floor of “All I Saw Cookware” at Meta Rose a few years ago that has steadily flourished on its own ever since. “To gain one (business) and eventually lose two will not be a gain for the city.”

Younique Boutique owner Megan Vincent, however, told council that her shop caters to a completely different clientele than that of Mimi’s Closet and shouldn’t be looked at as direct competition.

“I felt attacked when I heard (Slaughter) make that kind of a threat,” Vincent said. “We’re a consignment shop. We sell everything from gold nuggets, handbags, used designer items and we also have a $1 clearance sale I’m sure a lot of you girls have heard of. It attracts a lot of people. But we see a very different set of people.”

Vincent said that, if anything, attracting more people to the mall should help all the businesses there.

Councilman Steve Menard said he felt “bullied” by Slaughter’s statement that both businesses would fail if Younique Boutique is permitted to lease mall space.

“I was on the fence and now I’m off the fence,” Menard said. “I don’t like being bullied.”

Another request to block council action that failed unanimously came from councilwoman and mayoral candidate Taffina Katkus, who had hoped to slow the adoption of the Wasilla Comprehensive Plan until draft parks and other sub-plans could be finalized first.

Katkus, who lives near a proposed outdoor gun range adjacent to the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, said she is concerned that all the time, energy and funds that have gone into getting public comments and ideas on Wasilla’s parks and downtown areas will be for naught if council adopts the Wasilla Comprehensive Plan this summer before the other plans are adopted.

“We need to preserve the integrity of public participation,” Katkus said. “Four years ago I was part of a visionary committee on the area-wide plan where we heard 57 citizens for almost two years. These plans are good plans and they’re only four years old. They have cost the city over $200,000 and should be adopted to validate all the time and expense.”

But Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings explained to Katkus that the Wasilla Area-Wide Plan had run into a snag during city contract disputes and that funds for the Comprehensive Plan were more readily available, so the city ran with it while it could.

Giddings said it doesn’t matter that the Comprehensive Plan is adopted first because it simply serves as an overall framework or guide for the other plans.

“The Comprehensive Plan contains the most current view of the public,” Giddings said. “It’s been sitting for a long time, but we’re ready to roll with it now.”

Giddings and Mayor Verne Rupright said it makes more sense to deal with the parks plans and other sub-plans separately as referenced in the Comprehensive Plan so that the city won’t have to get the Mat-Su Borough Assembly’s blessing every time it needs to make small changes to those other plans.

“We’re required to adopt a comprehensive plan every 10 years and it hasn’t been done since 1996,” Rupright said.

At its June 13 meeting, council will hear public testimony on the first reading of the ordinance to repeal the 1996 Wasilla Comprehensive Plan as amended and adopt the 2011 Wasilla Comprehensive Plan, including the incorporation by reference of the 1999 Trails Plan and the All Hazard Mitigation Plan Phase I.

For more information, visit the city of Wasilla website at cityofwasilla.com.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.