Palmer considers box store ordinance

PALMER -- A new ordinance coming before the Palmer City Council would seek to regulate the increasingly common image of the gigantic box store being built on small-town streets.

Palmer Ordinance No. 606 contains stipulations that affect businesses with a footprint greater than 20,000 square feet, a figure that includes, primarily, large retail outlets such as membership warehouses, box stores and large "superstores."

The ordinance is designed especially to "promote architectural variety, access amenities, site improvements, and mitigation of community impacts," according to its text. The regulations imposed by the ordinance refer primarily to traffic control, landscaping, pedestrian access and aesthetic appearance of these large businesses.

The city would improve large stores' employment of these elements by requiring them to obtain a "large retail establishment permit" before breaking ground, the application for which would require a public meeting and review by the city manager, among other things.

Council Member John Combs said the new ordinance was introduced in large part as a response to recent developments in Palmer, particularly the new Fred Meyer.

"We'd like to get a lid on this before a lot of other stuff starts moving in here," Combs said.

However, Combs emphasized that Fred Meyer had in no way made themselves a problem for Palmer.

"They've really made an effort to become part of the community here," he said. "They did a lot of things they didn't have to do in their planning process to accommodate us."

Sara Jansen with the Palmer Community Development Office was a key player in placing the ordinance before the council. She agreed that the new Fred Meyer was certainly a factor in drafting the prospective rules.

"I can't speak for everyone, but I think that before Fred Meyer came to town, it never occurred to me that anyone would place a store of that size in downtown Palmer," Jansen said. "It really opened my eyes."

However, Jansen agreed with Combs that Fred Meyer was extremely cooperative when planning their Palmer move.

"They were an amazingly good corporation to work with," she said. Jansen added that Fred Meyer had simply brought the need for large business regulation into the view of local government, rather than necessitating action.

The ordinance would require all new businesses fitting its stipulations to provide a minimum of two vehicular access points, as well as performing a traffic impact analysis of possible congestion caused in the area during peak traffic times.

"When you've got a store that produces that much traffic per hour, you're going to need regulations," Jansen said. She also mentioned that the traffic code contained in the ordinance was modeled after similar traffic regulations in other areas of the state. "We like to look at what others are doing before we start writing our own ordinances," she said. The city would review and comment on this analysis in deciding whether to grant the business a building permit.

Businesses would also be required to perform considerable landscaping on their lot, equal to at least 15 percent of the total lot area. The ordinance states that this landscaping should reduce the aural and visual impact of vehicle movement around the lot. An additional stipulation states that all parking lots associated with the businesses should be screened from public streets by trees, shrubs or other flora.

"A little bit of landscaping goes a long way to make your town look good," Jansen said.

The ordinance also places further limitations on the visibility and impact of parking lots, provisions for pedestrian access, light pollution, outdoor storage and noise mitigation for adjacent residences.

An aesthetic code contained within the ordinance would reduce or eliminate concrete block or pre-fab steel panel building fronts, monotonous parapet walls, and blank, impersonal profiles.

Jansen said she didn't think the ordinance, if passed, would dissuade other large stores from coming to Palmer or otherwise impede economic development within the city.

"Our goal is to welcome them and have them be successful," Jansen said.

The Palmer City Council will discuss the ordinance at its May 11 meeting to determine whether they can put their support behind it.

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.