By Jen Lebron Kuhney | The Republic | azcentral.com
Surprise leaders are under legal and community pressure to re-examine a commission’s decision to approve zoning for a proposed WinCo Foods store.
The no-frills food store is proposed at a site on the southwestern corner of Bell Road near Loop 303. It would be adjacent to a shopping center with a Safeway, across the street from an Albertsons and across the freeway from a Sam’s Club.
A citizens group filed a lawsuit arguing that the proposed store site in northwest Surprise is zoned for a regular grocery store, but WinCo should be allowed only on property that’s zoned for warehouse or big-box retail stores. The lawsuit argues the city should go through a full planning and zoning process to change what’s 6.5 million in street bonds to help Eastmark economic development City, DMB redo infrastructure deal permitted on the property if the WinCo project moves forward.
In a letter to Surprise City Attorney Misty Leslie dated Nov. 13, Jordan Rose, another lawyer representing the owner of the property where the WinCo is approved, said that approval of the store has already been approved and should be “legally without question.” “This is just a desperate attempt by a competitor to try to stop economic development in Surprise, nothing more. They are grasping at straws here as the WinCo is fully entitled, legally allowed, and, frankly, very desirable to the community.”
