A proposed Walgreen's store at Jefferson Highway and Garden Road in River Ridge is stirring up neighborhood angst as it winds through the Jefferson Parish regulatory process. The drugstore chain wants to build a new, stand-alone store on the site where a Blockbuster video outlet has been located. The new Walgreen's would replace one in a shopping center two...
A proposed Walgreen's store at Jefferson Highway and Garden Road in River Ridge is stirring up neighborhood angst as it winds through the Jefferson Parish regulatory process.
The drugstore chain wants to build a new, stand-alone store on the site where a Blockbuster video outlet has been located. The new Walgreen's would replace one in a shopping center two blocks away at Sauve Road.
To make the project fit the new space, the developer has alternately proposed to cut landscaping or maintain the landscaping but reduce the drive-though from two lanes to one, and to dig a basement for storage -- a rare feature in the mostly low-lying New Orleans region.
Parish planners said the land already has the commercial zoning needed for the store, so the primary question is whether this particular property can accommodate the project's parking, traffic, drainage and other needs.
"The issue is not whether it's allowed, because it is," Jefferson Parish Planning Director Ed Durabb said. "The problem is whether or not the site itself can support it."
Parish planners endorsed a version of the project that would have cut into street-side landscaping to create enough room for parking. That version would need special approval under the parish's commercial parkway codes for major corridors.
Then the builder revised the plans to restore the landscaping buffer but narrow the drive-though lanes. Planners are now studying whether the latest iteration provides sufficient parking and traffic flow.
"They've gradually been reducing the number of variances" to the zoning codes, Durabb said. "They've been trending in the right direction."
The Planning Advisory Board could take up the case Thursday at a 5 p.m. at the Joseph S. Yenni Building in Elmwood. But Al LeBlanc, an attorney representing the development, said the goal is to avoid needing any variances at all, which would eliminate the need for a board hearing and remove any basis for objection.
"We think it's a pretty straightforward," project, he said.
Jane Mathes, who lives on Garden Road, is among the residents opposed to the new store. She and other neighbors have gathered more than 100 signatures on a petition against it.
"The lot is very narrow," Mathes said. "It's not really big enough for what they want to do."
She said Garden Road, a narrow, quiet residential street where children frequently play without confronting traffic, cannot handle the store.
"Let's protect the neighborhood that's there, that this really doesn't work for," she said. "It's not supposed to be a busy commercial street."
LeBlanc, however, said the store will replace older commercial buildings with an updated, desirable development.
"It's already a commercial corner," LeBlanc said. "The changes being proposed on this site are anticipated to have no measurable impact on traffic."
Mark Waller can be reached at mwaller@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7056.