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Below is the agenda for the latest meeting on the over-sized proposal for the Safeway on College Avenue.  The meetings tonight; I'm traveling.  But for those who attend and want a recap of the first meeting held June 19, 2008, here's my video from that 300-strong event: Rockridge Safeway Stakeholder Meeting #5 Agenda November 12, 2008 Section I. Introduction/Context 7:00-7:15 Welcome, introduction, agenda review Review overall project objective and today’s objectives Review of Groundrules Review process for tonight’s meeting Section II. Reflection of ideas generated during Meetings 1-4 7:15-7:30 Review areas of agreement and open items Interior Exterior Landscaping Contiguous Neighbor buffer Parking Traffic Section III. Open dialogue with David Blair (architect) 7:30-8:45 Todd Paradis – opening and purpose David Blair presents a couple of ideas for each program element – a sampling of some of the important aspects related to landscaping, buffer, exterior, parking, etc.

This is a video of the recent June 19, 2008 meeting to present Safeway's controversial plan to dramatically move and expand the current Safeway store at College Avenue and Claremont. The new store will be at 6310 College Avenue and roughly at what is now a corner gas station. The new 75,000 square foot store -- three times the size of the current facility -- will undoubtefly bring more traffic and also foot traffic closer to the center of Rockridge in North Oakland. That's the concern of the over 300 people who packed the room on that hot Thursday June 19th evening. The video features incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner's presentation of the meeting, a talk with Patrick McCullough, who was Brunner's challenger in the last election primary (2008), a presentation by Dan Metzger of the Claremont / Elwood Neighbor Association, Stu Flashman of The Rockridge Community Planning Council, and Elizabeth Jewel, the planning consultant, as well as Todd Paradis, of the Safeway Rea

One good thing about being around here for awhile with an active memory is history. I remember when Dreyer's Ice Cream proposed its giant facility for Rockridge, and many, including for a time me, were against it. One reason for this was that the original plan called for a visible College Avenue presence that was just too out of scale with the neighborhood. I say that's true for the Safeway proposal before us. This is one of those stories that needs a video and one will be up soon, but for the present, what's neat about Rockridge is that there's not one long wall of building walls hugging the street. It's a parade of structures of varied heights, allowing Sun to reach the street and giving a small-town-in-Oakland feel. But Safeway's current proposal will destroy that feeling in my view. It calls for a building that does what's not cool: hugs the street and looms over it. It would drastically alter Rockridge and make it seem more like a retail downtow