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 — Center Market, the 24-hour, family-owned convenience store chain, is looking to remodel an existing building across from Rheingarten Park and open its fourth mid-Columbia location, even if that means satisfying a slew of conditions while facing significant public pushback.
The property in question is 211 N. Main Ave., a commercially-zoned office space formerly occupied by Washington’s Department of Health and Human Services. Center Market franchisee Joson Singh applied for a change of use back in March, and city staff recommended denial in a July 6 report. Two days later, Singh asked White Salmon’s Planning Commission to postpone the scheduled public hearing.
“We were unaware of some of the conditions that we needed for approval,” he said. “We’ll be requesting to make the changes in all our engineering and everything else that we need to do, and revisit this on a later date.”
In their report, City Planner Rowan Fairfield noted the application did not satisfy standards related to entry orientation and the overall extent of ground-floor, street-facing windows, and attached conditions to several other code provisions.
The public works department also laid out two options for mitigating an expected increase in traffic. Center Market could either fund a right-of-way upgrade for NE Lincoln Street, including roadway reconstruction, pavement widening, new sidewalks and more, or help convert NE Lincoln to one-way traffic, should its application be approved.
Given the realities of resubmission, staff review and renoticing, Planning Commission Chair Carl Trabant said that another hearing would likely take place in August or September. More than 80 people submitted public comment, and all but one opposed the project.
Center Market already has one location in Hood River and two in The Dalles.
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