The old Washington Department of Health and Human Services office, which Center Market is aiming to remodel and make into its fourth regional location, off Main Street in White Salmon.
The old Washington Department of Health and Human Services office, which Center Market is aiming to remodel and make into its fourth regional location, off Main Street in White Salmon.
WHITE SALMON — Last Wednesday, White Salmon’s Planning Commission discussed a potential ordinance that would make small-box discount stores a prohibited use in the commercial district, and city council will again consider a temporary moratorium on these “dollar stores” Sept. 2.
According to City Planner Rowan Fairfield, Mayor Marla Keethler engaged the community development committee on the code change earlier this spring. Then, on July 8, the planning commission held a public hearing for Joson Singh’s application to remodel an office building across from Rheingarten Park and open a Center Market, which was subsequently postponed. Dollar stores and a family-owned convenience chain like Center Market, with more than 30 locations dotted across Oregon and Washington, are not the same, however.
“This is not even meant to target necessarily a Center Market-type store,” Fairfield clarified during the meeting, emphasizing that Singh’s application is tied to the city’s existing codes anyway. “Those dollar stores that run a bit of a predatory model, and there [are] studies to back that up.”
A report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, cited in the commission’s agenda packet, provides several examples of how dollar stores have priced out local grocers and intentionally pursued locations in underserved communities, both rural and urban. The report also notes that 92% of Dollar General employees earned less than $15 per hour, based on a wage analysis from April 2022, the worst rate of 66 large service-sector firms.
By contrast, Center Market sells market-priced snacks, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, frozen meals, cigarettes, household convenience goods and a variety of other items 24 hours a day.
Under the proposed changes, small-box discount stores would be defined as follows: “A retail establishment with a gross floor area of less than 10,000 square feet that operates under a common trade name, trademark, or franchise and primarily offers for sale a variety of discounted consumer goods, household items, personal care products, packaged foods, or similar merchandise.”
Establishments that include a gas station, prescription pharmacy or devote more than 15% of their sales area to fresh produce and other food items wouldn’t be prohibited.
After Fairfield explained that the code changes aren’t intended to address convenience stores, the commission’s discussion largely revolved around whether the “name, trademark, or franchise” language was strong enough.
“Do you guys share any concerns that I have about a company with that capacity coming in and opening a store under some one-off, cute mom-and-pop name, and then still conducting business the same way that they would down in Bingen?” asked Commissioner Brendan Brown.
Commissioners subsequently directed Fairfield to reframe the definition and ensure that the controlling interests of any future small-box discount store are local rather than national. Once White Salmon’s Community Development Committee finishes workshopping the draft ordinance, it will then return to the planning commission, and possibly to city council, at a later date with opportunities for public comment.
The moratorium
Prior to the planning commission’s July 8 hearing, more than 80 people submitted testimony about the proposed Center Market, largely in opposition. They cited increased traffic, proximity to spaces frequented by children, compatibility with downtown character and impacts to local businesses, among other concerns.
The sheer amount of feedback prompted Keethler to add the six-month moratorium on small-box discount stores to city council’s Aug. 13 special meeting agenda shortly beforehand.
“What that signaled to me is, this is a community that is paying attention and has strong views about how this town develops,” she said during an interview. “If we were to see something like that, I think this community would be really frustrated with their elected leadership. They’d wonder why we weren’t addressing these things. And to me, it’s unfortunate that it’s getting misconstrued as if this is targeting Center Market.”
Additionally, she noted that White Salmon’s Comprehensive Plan calls for “creating a vibrant downtown commercial district” that is an “attractive place to walk, dine, shop, and gather.” Alongside a large commercial lot next to the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge, two properties on Jewett are up for sale, and Keethler recalled how Parkdale residents had to mobilize, albeit successfully, against a proposed Dollar General in 2020 after the application was submitted.
“I do not see a genuine emergency here, only a decision to act first and listen later. That’s backwards, and residents deserve better,” Sasha Bently wrote in her email to the city. And while separate issues, local business owner Kate Bertash also criticized the nature of comments received regarding the Center Market application.
“The record called the food ‘toxic’ and the future customers ‘transient foot traffic’ and a threat to ‘student security,’ and suggested the business belongs somewhere on the outskirts, out of sight,” Bertash wrote. “These are racist, classist dogwhistles, and they have no business being included in the considerations for a land use application.”
The moratorium is back on council’s Sept. 2 agenda, with an opportunity for public testimony. Keethler said she realizes why some were upset over how it initially got rolled out, and that’s why she requested it be discussed at a regularly scheduled council meeting.
“I made a bad call,” she said. “There’s a real procedural question for [council] to consider, but that is the only place it’s at. It’s still very early in the process, and what we don’t know is how long our different bodies will take deliberating this question.”
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