New College Ave. Safeway plans released
Supermarket chain Safeway released a second set of plans this morning for an overhaul of its College Avenue store. The company posted the drawings and photos here.
The company’s first set of plans, released last year, sparked controversy in the Rockridge neighborhood near College and Claremont avenues because of the size of the proposed new store and the impact it would have on traffic and local merchants.
The new plans are similar to the original proposal in that they greatly expand the footprint of the store, pushing it to the corner of Claremont and College and taking over the space now occupied by a 76 gas station. But the proposal now calls for a more visually varied facade on College Ave, with retail shops on the ground level of the building and the supermarket itself on the top-level.
The parking area that used to be on the roof is now on the ground level, but hidden behind the street-level retail shops and underneath the second-story supermarket.
Safeway said that parking “has been designed to be mostly hidden from pedestrian view.”
“We believe you will find that the proposed design complements the style and scale of the neighborhood and unique urban setting,” the company said in a statement on the web site it built for the project. “We strived to be mindful of enlivening and enhancing the area with outdoor seating, retail shops, and walkable sidewalks to promote increased pedestrian activity and community pride.”
The changes did nothing to mollify two of the project’s biggest critics, neighbors Susan Shawl and Nancy McKay, who have organized to oppose a massive expansion of the store. Safeway representatives met with the two women Friday afternoon and discussed the store over McKay’s kitchen table. The pair came away unimpressed.
“I feel nauseated,” McKay said of the new building, which she said would cover 59,000 square feet. “It feels like a Walnut Creek mall. It has this huge corporate Safeway presence about it.”
Safeway wants to demolish the current store, which opened in 1964, and rebuild it as one of its modern “lifetsyle” stores that feature a wider selection of foods and services such as a bakeries, delis, and pharmacies.
The company will host a community meeting on June 19th to discuss the proposal. Shawl and McKay expect a large turnout at the meeting. They have leafleted about 3,000 homes in the area and sent out about 700 email announcements.
The meeting is scheduled for June 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Peralta Elementary School Gym, 460 63rd Street.
UPDATE: This story has been updated throughout with new details and reaction from the project opponents.












Looks great! College Avenue really needs an urban facade there so that the dense pedestrian traffic can be on both sides of the street, and more storefronts will allow more entrepreneurs the opportunity to open a store in Oakland’s most successful shopping district.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:42 am[…] has a great post up about the plans for the Safeway demolition and rebuilding on College. This whole process has […]
June 13th, 2008 at 4:45 pmNauseated? I can’t believe that Ms. McKay would rather look at a concrete wall at an odd angle and a giant parking lot than an urbane facade with shops and a pedestrian-friendly entrance.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:29 pm[…] lining most of College Avenue between Broadway and Alcatraz. Yes, there will admittedly be a “huge corporate Safeway presence about it,” but that will be rather difficult to avoid as long as the site is occupied by, well … […]
June 14th, 2008 at 9:25 pm[…] Proposal Community Meeting on Thursday Night June 18, 2008 It seems that everyone in the blogoaksphere is weighing in on the proposed Safeway remodel on College in Rockridge. Whether you support it, […]
June 18th, 2008 at 9:02 am[…] 06.13.08 Oakland News: New College Ave. Safeway plans released […]
November 24th, 2008 at 11:12 pmAnother hideous attempt at mega-development by Safeway that is completely out of scale with the local shops. They have just finished supersizing their Broadway store. This development is completely unnecessary and will trash the small local flavor of College Ave at this location. Mobilize to prevent this corporate stupidity!
February 15th, 2009 at 10:57 pm