The Emeryville, California-based supermarket chain Grocery Outlet has submitted paperwork for a new store to be located on 1st Street in north Cheney.
According to a Notice of Application dated March 21, the company is proposing to combine two separate lots, parcel numbers 23072.0096 and 23072.0097, located at 2603 1st Street into one parent parcel. The move would allow for construction of a 16,456-square-foot commercial building between the Verizon outlet to the north and Presnell’s Trailer Court to the south on the east side of 1st Street.
According to Spokane County’s SCOUT property information website, the first parcel is 32,492-square-feet in size while the second parcel is 29,185 square feet. The owner of both pieces, totaling 1.36 acres, is listed as Mahaffy Living Trust, with a 2019 total taxable land value of $358,060.
According to the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) Determination for the proposal, the site consists mostly of basalt rock with a variety of other soils. There are also fills composed of construction debris likely leftover from the development of nearby properties.
“There was the placement of unconsolidated fill on the site over the years,” Cheney senior planner Brett Lucas said in an email. “(The) applicant is aware as we have requested a geotech assessment. Most likely some of the fill will go away and engineered fill will be placed.”
The site is also bordered on the east by the tracks of the Washington Eastern Railway, and a small body of water referred to as Minnie Creek that originates near wetlands north of Cheney and flows south under the Cheney-Spokane Road, eventually turning back east and north towards Marshal. The determination notes that a first-phase environmental study indicates groundwater occurs approximately 20 feet below the site’s surface, and also flows east-southeast.
Stormwater on the site will be collected in two catch basins, one with a volume of 904 cubic feet and the other a volume of 109 cubic feet. Most of the site, 77 percent, will be impervious surface — mainly asphalt — off of which stormwater will flow into the basins, which are designed to handled a peak 100-year storm event.
Lucas also said the applicant, is aware of existing utility lines on the site, including a gas line located 700 feet south of the site. The project will offer an additional 63 off-street parking spaces, including two spaces reserved for handicapped accessible parking.
A preliminary traffic impact study by ARD Engineering concluded that the project would generate 35 new net trips on 1st Street during peak morning hours and 119 trips in the evening peak hours.
Proposed timing for the project indicates construction commencing later this year, with grocery retail operations beginning in late 2020.
No public hearing is required on the project. A comment period on the parcel combination proposal closes Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m., with comments being directed to Lucas at [email protected].
The applicant, Main & Main Capital Group, is also requesting a partial easement release of an 11-foot wide strip of land on the existing 25-foot wide easement on the property for use during construction of the building. Cheney’s City Council was to vote on the easement resolution at their March 26 meeting.
Grocery Outlet representatives had not responded to requests for comment at press time.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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