Unsure. It’ll be nice to have something a little more upscale like Fresh & Easy in our neck of the woods, especially since Ralphs seems to have given up any attempts to spruce up their store (compare to the Vons on Allen & Washington, or Super King at Lincoln Crossing — Ralphs is sad, sad indeed!). On the other hand, Fresh & Easy doesn’t have the choice as a “real” grocery store, and their fare is a little more expensive, but they’re selling convenience. It’ll be nice to have, but it’d be nice to have a real grocery store, too, one that was more pleasant to shop in.

Rite-Aid will likely close down its store at the Altadena/Lake complex to open the new store, and I don’t know what that means — a large empty space on that lot isn’t a good sign. Hopefully, the whole development will pressure Ralphs into stepping up the pace, or getting somebody (Vons? Pavilions? Heck, Whole Foods or TJ’s!) into the Rite-Aid spot on Allen who might want to run a decent supermarket.

(fixed minor errors!)

Pardon me, Altadenablog. If my memory serves me correctly, Ralphs had a plan to expand into that space, but it was trashed by our illustrious Town Council because it threatened a couple of sacred trees on the property. I like trees (I have 8 on my property), but not so much as to leave a crumbling eyesore of a building in place for years to save them. You can always plant new ones.

I also seem to remember that Rite Aid had plans to move to the lot now occupied by the current WAMU building which fell through because I don’t know why. Another eyesore we had to deal with for years. One hopes Rite Aid is really going to follow through this time, lest we have another partially empty strip mall to deal with.

There has been all sorts of rumors and nonsense going around about why the Ralph’s expansion fell through sometime back. It was before my time, but everyone and I mean everyone who was around then tells me that the reason the expansion fail was due to a dispute over the financial arrangement between Ralph’s and the owner of the property on the corner. Nothing more nothing less.

Gino Sund

Guys – I moved to Altadena in 2004. Ever since, it seems to me, that lot has been an embarrassment to our community.

I’m guessing that the choices at this point are a) this proposal or b) the status quo.

That’s a no-brainer.

Trying to stop this would be detrimental to our community.

Let’s do the right thing.

This looks like wonderful news!

Thanks for the info, Mr. Sund. Rumors and nonsense is all that’s available to those of us who might not know “everyone and I mean everyone”. After all, Altadenablog was not in existence back then!

Gino, do I understand correctly that the issue on tonight’s Land Use Committee meeting is not whether or not the community supports a Tesco/Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and the relocation of Rite Aid at this location across the street from Eliot Middle School, but whether or not these two establishments should be given a Conditional Use Permit to sell beer and wine (Fresh & Easy) and alcohol (Rite Aid)?

If that understanding is correct, then if the CUP were denied by the ABC and LA County, what would the probable impact be on the development project? Would the tenants move forward with their plans without the CUP?