Big Lots soon to be an El Super.
There was a great deal of protestation from the developer that they are community oriented. It was pointed out to them they made no effort to contact anyone in Highland Park, or either Council District until they were forced by the stop work order from the City Cultural Heritage Commission.

They claimed they would be bringing 130 locally hired jobs to Highland Park, and that their wages were better than the Union wages they pay to their recently acquired El Gigante chain. Until it was pointed out that the Union wage at El Gigante is one dollar above minimum wage, and no, they admitted, they would not be paying wages comparable to Vons and Albertsons.

They claim other mom and pop grocery stores in their other locations have not been driven out of business, when it was pointed out that the opposite was true at several specific locations.

They said they would be putting in trees and landscaping until it was pointed out that trees are not on their plans. When asked about trucks, they said they would accommodate the neighborhood and change delivery times to suit traffic concerns. However they estimated 4 to 5 large trucks per day not counting smaller trucks. They have made no investigations about traffic patterns, and not addressed damage the heavy trucks will do to York Blvd.

They expressed explicit willingness to work with Land Use on the design and scale of the building whether or not the building was designated historical, and yes they are willing to replace the facade they destroyed. They are returning to a special Land Use meeting Tues. March 17 to begin this process.

It made a big difference to have a large crowd there, as they now clearly understand their mistake, and actually apologized for not coming to us before. They actually said they were not used to having such a strong community response. This is code. They means they usually market to poor neighborhoods who express no community concern, and are used to coming in and doing whatever they
please.

I was surprised to hear they are not planning a gigantic store, but rather 36,000 sq ft. Super A is 30,000. And they sell only groceries, not clothes or other items. However, scouts to other stores have found their produce and other products to be poor quality.

Big Lots went out of business, and the property was bought by a large developer in LA specializing in gigantic discount markets. They began their demolition and renovation under the radar, and they certainly made no approach to Land Use at the Neighborhood Council.

The Cultural Heritage Commission recently agreed to consider the building, and ordered a stop all work to the developer. Work was not stopped, in fact they demolished the interior and glass façade the next day.

As near as we can tell, they expected to put this huge big box on York without consulting anyone. This will cause the usual destruction of many smaller businesses in the area, as well as traffic congestion.

They have agreed to send a rep to the next Land Use Committee meeting Tuesday, March 3 at 6:30 pm at the Carrows on York. Come to this meeting and make sure these developers, and their out of state architect, understand Highland Park is filled with actual people who care about our neighborhood, our businesses, and cannot be bypassed, and discounted.