Going shopping on the Skyway

Paradise residents may have successfully stalled the construction of a 59-acre shopping center at their town’s Skyway entrance for nearly seven years, but, when all is said and done, something is going to be built there.

Now it’s simply a matter of when—likely within a year—ground will be broken on the nearly 300,000-square-foot project.

“We need to get something we can live with,” says Save Our Gateway spokesman Mike McLaughlin, who’s lived in Paradise for 30 years.

After nearly two years of dormancy, one of the most contentious issues to hit the foothills community once again reared its head when the grassroots citizens’ group and Sacramento-based developer FHK Companies made its arguments in the 3rd District Court of Appeals Nov. 11.

The debate remains the same as it’s been from the beginning: Save Our Gateway charges the project will cause blight to the downtown, destroy the picturesque Skyway entrance to Paradise and won’t be able to handle the 12,000 gallons of wastewater necessary for something of its size.

In June 2005, SOG successfully poked enough holes in the environmental-impact report (EIR) for a Butte County Superior Court judge to rule that it wasn’t in compliance with state laws. FHK, one of the most successful development firms in the western United States, immediately filed an appeal.

McLaughlin and FHK general partner Fred Katz both said they left the courtroom two weeks ago unsure of how the decision would turn out.

But, based on the Superior Court ruling, McLaughlin likes his group’s chances of at least forcing FHK to have to re-examine the EIR: “I feel confident that we’re going to win this thing.”

The ever-confident Katz, on the other hand, said the firm made strong arguments in addressing the issues and thinks the worst-case scenario would require recertifying the EIR to deal with the waste-water issue. Although the judges technically have 90 days to make a decision, Katz said he expects a decision via e-mail by the end of the year. Even if FHK has to address all three issues he says it wouldn’t take more than six months to make the necessary changes and start breaking ground.

One of the main concerns with the project from the get-go has been that an unsightly box store, particularly a Wal-Mart, might anchor the center. Katz told the CN&R this week that FHK won’t make any deals until it jumps through the legal hoops but said there’s been interest from retail giants like Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart.

As it stands, the project will likely be scaled back to open up an additional five or six acres for wastewater disposal.

It’s been a long process to say the least. FHK purchased the large chunk of rural land just west of Neal Road, where the Skyway splits as it turns into a highway heading down to Chico, in 1999. The Paradise Town Council approved the project, hoping it would catch some of the $100 million in sales tax the town loses annually to Chico. SOG was able to gather enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot, but residents voted in favor of the project by a 60-40 margin in November 2004.

While McLaughlin acknowledges that a shopping center in some shape or form will eventually be built, he said he’d like to see smaller retail shops occupy the space instead of big-box stores.

Of course, in a perfect world, the land would remain untouched. “If I had $2 billion I’d buy it and put in a park,” McLaughlin said, “but that’s not going to happen.”