May 25—Although there was a hiccup in the effort to bring Grocery Outlet and Dutch Bros. coffee shop to Corning, the way appears to have been ironed out with a successful initiative amending the city's zoning map.

Grocery Outlet filed the initiative and was able to get the required signatures from city residents to make the zoning change. The signatures were submitted to the Tehama County Elections Office for verification.

According to City Planner Christina Meeds, the grocery store's plans to open in Corning were approved by the Planning Commission, but then put on hold when another company appealed the approval.

Meeds said Grocery Outlet was able to work around the appeal by successfully filing the initiative making it possible for the company to take its development plan directly to the City Council for approval.

The initiative amends the city's General Plan Land Use Map fro base land use designation of the initiative area from Highway 99E Specific Plan to Commercial.

The Corning Planning Commission approved a tentative parcel map and use permit for the project submitted by Sobel Development last year.

The address for the proposed 3.50 acre parcel project is at 663 Edith Ave., however, the property lies in a vacant field just north of the Shell gas station, the Olive Pit and Marcos Pizza and parallel to Solano Street.

According to city documents, the project would include a 16,000 square foot building for Grocery Outlet and 950 square feet for the Dutch Bros. drive-thru coffee stand and outdoor seating.

Additional traffic on Edith Avenue resulting from project construction was cited as a concern. An analysis by certified traffic engineer, GHD, showed no improvements would be needed in the area to accommodate trips generated during construction.

If the project goes through, Grocery Outlet will be joining Safeway and Sav-Mor as major grocery stores in the community, and Dutch Bros. will be the second drive-thru coffee chain, with Starbucks located just across Solano Street on Highway 99W.

According to the project site plan, Dutch Bros. would sit closest to Edith Avenue with the grocery store situated east, deeper into the acreage.

Grocery Outlet is a chain of discount supermarkets that offer discounted, overstocked and closeout products from name brand and private label suppliers. The company has stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania. There is a Grocery Outlet located in Red Bluff and in Orland.

Dutch Bros. is headquartered in Grants Pass, Ore., with locations throughout the country, the closest to Corning being in Red Bluff and Orland.