THIS JUST IN...

The Pellini bldg has been "red tagged" and now CVS will be charged with cleaning up the site.  The site has been pretty filthy for some time with boarded up windows and overgrown weeds.  Contrary to what I've reported here, CVS has been denied a demolition permit by the City.  They were never issued a demolition permit.  Still, it is no excuse to allow the site to deteriorate. The City informed CVS when they applied for the demolition permit that no permit would be forthcoming until resolution of the CVS suit against the City's moratorium on drive-thru windows.  A Council vote on whether or not to change the moratorium into an outright ban on drive-thru is not due until late fall.

Also, CVS has now been informed that they must comply with the City's recently approved ordinance requiring solar installations on new commercial buildings .

In a separate action, the process for resolving the suit by Committee for Small Town Sebastopol has, at request of CVS, been extended 12 times since its filing in August, 2011. Currently the Administrative Record on this suit is due on July 23, and final brief by November 8, 2013. Small Town's suit claimed that the traffic study on which the Mitigated Negative Declaration was issued in July, 2011, was inadequate because The Barlow was not included in the study, nor was any traffic beyond High St. to the west of the site.

In a separate matter, CalTrans has yet to receive from CVS a completed application for an encroachment permit to access the site from State Highways 116 and 12.

Meanwhile, the CVS suit regarding the moratorium on drive-thrus has been moved from the State courts to Federal court, by CVS, with agreement by the City.

Many thanks to Helen Shane for this update!

If you'd like to witness the process first-hand, put some time aside to attend the City Council meeting this Tuesday, the 16th at 6:00PM at the Youth Annex at 425 Morris St.