Wednesday night before a packed house at the City of Surprise Board of Adjustment, Rose Law Group Senior Partner Court Rich helped fight off massive opposition from Safeway and Albertsons to help gain approval for a WinCo Foods grocery at the southwest corner of Bell Road and the Loop 303.
Safeway and Albertsons had consistently pulled out all the stops in an effort to try and stymie their low-cost competition from entering the Surprise market. The competing grocery stores convinced the City of Surprise to treat a staff report issued in WinCo’s site plan review case as an appealable decision of the zoning administrator, setting up last night’s hearing before Surprise’s seldom-assembled Board of Adjustment.
Albertsons and Safeway brought out zoning attorneys Ed Bull and Paul Gilbert in opposition to the WinCo. Rose Law Group’s Court Rich, along with Jason Morris, successfully represented the owner of the land and the retailer in this fight between grocery giants.
The board rejected claims by Safeway and Albertsons that the PAD zoning on the property did not permit the WinCo grocery use and shot down the opposition’s attempts to draw parallels between WinCo’s grocery use and a nearby Sam’s Club.
“The board made the right decision in rejecting the ridiculous arguments put forth by the opposing grocery chains” said Rich. “WinCo is going to bring jobs and low price groceries to the community. In the end, it is the Surprise community that wins when these other grocery stores have greater competition.”
