The Altadena land use committee easily approved a conditional use permit (CUP) for the proposed development on the old WaMu property at Lake and Calavaras.  (There was a snafu that was discovered after almost all spectators left the meeting, but it got fixed — more details below).

What this means is that the CUP will go before the Altadena town council at its May 19 meeting.  If approved, the council will make a recommendation to regional planning, which will then pass it on to the county Board of Supervisors.  The developers expect that the approval process will take another 3-4 months, and are projecting opening day for the new development anywhere between July and November, 2010.

The CUP involves alcohol sales in the new development — Rite Aid (which will move from its Lake/Altadena Dr. site) will sell wine, beer, and distilled spirits, as it does now, and Fresh & Easy, which is being courted for the new development, will sell wine and beer.  Sales will not include single sales (individual cans or bottles).

Tracy Verastagy of Rite Aid said that they felt a Lake Ave. location would be better long-term than the current location, which she described as "a very old facility in a very old center."  The cost of updating at that location could run $500,000-$1 million, if the owner of the property was agreeable to updating the entire center. 

While Rite Aid is committed, Fresh & Easy is not yet a lock, according to a developer's representative.  The plan is for Rite Aid and Fresh & Easy to each occupy half of the ground floor, and the developers are targeting medical practices for the top floor. Hours will be standard business hours, and there will be a drive-thru pharmacy location in the back, as well as a parking structure.

After the committee approved sending the CUP to the council (and after almost everyone left), they discovered that they actually needed to have a copy of the permit application on hand in order to approve it– and they didn't.  So the committee rescinded its previous approval, and passed another motion, provisionally approving the CUP if the Altadena town council received a copy before its meeting.  That motion was passed.

Patrick Reagan at Altadena Wants a Co-op actually got his story up first — read it here for another take on the subject.

5/9 9:30 AM: corrected info about drive-thru pharmacy per Gino Sund's comment.