Winco Receives Unanimous Approval To Build Roseburg Location

Roseburg City Council voted unanimously to approve the WinCo Foods application at Monday’s special hearing. The councilors supported the Planning Commission’s approval from the initial presentation at the commission meeting on April 5. After an hour of hearing arguments and rebuttals from Safe Streets Roseburg and WinCo Foods, all seven city councilors agreed that WinCo addressed the concerns about pedestrian safety. “Clearly, WinCo wants to have a safe parking lot," Councilor Brian Prawitz said. Prawitz asked the Safe Streets Roseburg representative, Sean Malone, if the planning commission treated everyone fairly. Malone said he had been treated fairly. "I don't see how we can't approve and vote for it," Councilor Alison Eggers said. “To me, a building not derelict in this town is a plus, plus, plus. And the fact that you’re going to improve the parking lot… I know as a company your bottom line is safety.” Councilors Bob Cotterell and Sheri Moothart talked about turning the vacant building into something useful and bringing life back to that area and adding safety features that don’t currently exist. Malone’s argument centered on the definition of “throughout” in the code, saying it was an “ambiguous term.” He said the planning commission “didn’t require more of the applicant.” ---------- (Below is an excerpt from an article published on March 30, 2021 on Roseburg Tracker) Winco Foods had submitted plans to the City of Roseburg to build a new location at the site of the old Kmart building on Stewart Parkway. The location has sat empty for the past several years. The proposal calls for demolishing the old Kmart building and constructing a new 72,971 sq ft building in its place. The grocery store would operate 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. Winco has a total of 131 employee-owned stores with over 20k employees.