Moses Lake seeks comments on Lowe's

Company prepares to open new store in Yonezawa area

MOSES LAKE - The public has a little bit of time left to comment on a new retail store.

The City of Moses Lake on Sept. 4 received a State Environmental Policy Act check list and a site plan review application for a proposed Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.

The proposal is to develop a roughly 13-acre site into a roughly 140,000 square-foot location with landscaping and parking. The site is located at the northwest intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and state Route 17.

City Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado said Lowe's initiated the project by starting land use permitting, which was reviewed by the city and considered complete Sept. 20.

A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at 401 Balsam St. Public comment may be submitted in letter form through 5 p.m. Thursday. If someone misses the written deadline, they may show up and give testimony at the public hearing, Alvarado said.

"The process Lowe's is following is the typical process any project we've considered goes through," he said. "Based on what we're seeing in terms of land use permitting, there isn't any other indication that would tell us they're not (coming). They've taken the time to consider the site through a selection team and go through the process of hiring a consultant to handle the permitting."

Alvarado said a similar process was followed with the Home Depot project several years ago.

Alvarado said the addition of Lowe's is definitely a positive project for Moses Lake, and complements the city's existing lumber yards.

"The addition of a Lowe's signals other potential commercial developments, other franchise-type development you see in large jurisdictions," Alvarado said. "That is a large positive for us."

But, he cautioned, it might be a while before such developments are tangible.

"We see interest consistently," Alvarado said. "Some of that, however, is not for public disemination. To give you an example, (the current location of) the Jack in the Box project took almost three years in the making. We work projects and some of them are not for public disemination and they can just one day walk away. So we've consistently seen the interest, it's just a matter of the timing."

Some projects long in the works are moving forward, Alvarado said, pointing to the Safeway fueling station, a new Taco Bell location in the Yonezawa Bouelvard area near the Lowe's project and a new Autozone location on Pioneer Way across the street from the Safeway complex.

"We welcome this particular project," Alvarado said of Lowe's. "I think it will complement well with our existing home improvement warehouse businesses."

"If we haven't closed on all real estate matters, our policy is not to comment on any potential site," Lowe's spokesperson Maureen Rich said.