CVS has rolled out its plans for a new pharmacy and drive-though window on the site of the vacant Holder Ford building on West Napa Street. Given the reaction of the planning commission the project will be a bumpy ride.
CVS would tear down the existing structure and build a 16,000 sq. ft. building in its place, with the storefront facing northwest. The facility would include a drive-through window at the southwest corner, add parking to the west, and install landscape buffers along the creek and the West Napa frontage.
Any vote on the plan is far off, but “I don’t see it going anywhere,” said Commissioner Don Felder.
The panel’s primary objections were in regards to traffic, noise and the big-box store design. The impact of CVS leaving its current Sonoma Marketplace location was also a concern.
CVS will incorporate comments from the study session into an updated proposal.
“We’ve got a lot to do,” admitted CVS representative William McDermott.
Several commissioners, and members of the public, said adding the pharmacy’s flow of cars into an already-busy traffic area would create massive problems on West Napa. “That stretch is barely capable of handling the current traffic,” said a member of an association of 38 nearby homeowners.
McDermott, of Armstrong Development Properties Inc., said he could not speak to the issue until a traffic study was undertaken. “Obviously it’s to our benefit to develop a way to get our customers in and out, and not worsen the condition.”
Another aspect of traffic is a back exit onto Studley Street, usage of which would likely increase with a busier store. Several neighbors spoke about the noise and danger to pedestrians an upsurge would create, but McDermott said CVS had no control over that easement.
On the noise issue, residents were particularly concerned about the drive-though window operating 24-hours a day. “An all-night drive-though is their ultimate goal.”
McDermott said the notion of a 24-hour service was mistaken. “The store and the drive-through would operate at current store hours,” he said. “We are not proposing additional hours.”
The aesthetics of the building, which is of unremarkable corporate design, came under intense scrutiny.
“Why tear down a 10-year-old building?” asked Commissioner Ray Gallian. “Why not just remodel? Why not work with the character that’s there? To me it’s a Disneyland version of Sonoma. It feels forced.”
McDermott answered that the current Holder Ford building does not meet the CVS standard. The company has several store design templates, based on size, and the Holder building “doesn’t fit the corporate prototype. The company looked at the space and said ‘Let’s use our peg.’”
As to incorporating materials more fitting to the locale, McDermott said, “We will use materials that tie into the community. We want that kind of feedback. We’ll do whatever we have to do to adhere to code.”
There was also alarm about what would happen if CVS vacated its current location in the Sonoma Marketplace.
CVS owns that building and the parking lot in front of it. “They have the ability to decide who it will be sold or leased to,” said Gail Johnson, the center’s property manager.
“A space that big is not easy to fill,” she said. By contract the space can’t be developed as a grocery store. “There will be no Trader Joe’s. The likely candidates are a dollar store, a thrift store, a mattress store… and we lose our pharmacy.
“It will destroy the dynamics of that shopping center,” Johnson said.
Moving the business to a car-dependent location would “dis-aggregate the center of town,” felt Michael George, commission chair. “What we have now is an ideal location for a walkable community.”
McDermott admitted to being somewhat surprised by the commission’s bluntly negative reaction. “(Sonoma) is an active and educated community,” he said. “The end result will be, everybody will be happy.”
