Winco to break ground in Moses Lake on Monday

MOSES LAKE — After months of litigation and hoops to jump through, Winco will finally be breaking ground and starting construction on their Moses Lake grocery store on Monday.

Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado made the announcement during the last city council meeting that Winco officials picked up the permit for the grocery store on Monday. The city previously approved the permit in a single day.

“The contractors were with us today (Tuesday) and they are looking to mobilize and initiate construction on Monday,” Alvarado told the council. “I will tell you, and again this is not my doing but my staff’s doing, for us to issue a permit for that grocery store with a review in one day was impressive.”

The journey to finally break ground on the grocery store, which will be located between Stratford Road and Central Drive, adjacent to Moses Lake Town Center, had some challenges. Donna Anderson, Peggy Vines and a group called A Stronger Moses Lake appealed a planning commission decision all the way to Grant County Superior Court in opposition of the Boise, Idaho-based grocery store chain coming to Moses Lake.

The basis of the appeal was potential traffic issues the store could create, which included problems at the North Stratford Road and West Valley Road intersection and the North Stratford Road and Broadway Avenue intersection. The concern was over dangers to pedestrians and bicyclists.

There was some speculation that a local food and commercial workers union was involved in the appeal in an attempt to deny Winco, which is an employee-owned business, entry into Moses Lake. Vines is a vice-president with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1439 and Anderson was a shop steward up until 2010, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald report.

Grant County Superior Court Judge John Knodell dismissed the case in mid-April, with a 30-day time period given to appeal the judge’s decision. City documents indicate the facility will be 58,285 square feet and will include 346 parking spaces. The plan is to divide a 16.89-parcel of land, “Tract J”, into three smaller parcels. The new parcels will be 6.63 acres for the actual grocery store, 1.21 acres for the access drive and 9.05 acres that is not currently being proposed for development.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.