Time to Chime in on Santee Walmart Expansion to 24-Hour Supercenter

After years of discussion and planning, a project to expand the Santee Walmart into a Supercenter that sells more groceries on a new 24-hour per day schedule is moving forward. 

The City of Santee released a draft Environmental Impact Report for the project last week, kicking off a 45-day timeframe to offer input about the project to the city.

The project would enlarge the store from 131,220 square feet to 180,339 square feet, making it about 40 percent larger than it is now. Most of the expansion would be taken up by a larger grocery selection, which would require a change of the Town Center Specific Plan to allow clarify that sales of retail and grocery goods in the same store is allowed.

The EIR includes plans to expand store hours to 24-hours per day, an increase of 42 hours each week. 

Doug Curlee wrote about the reaction of residential neighbors of Walmart to plans shown to the public in 2011:

"I’ve been over in that neighborhood a couple of times, listening- and the racket is nearly unbearable," wrote Curlee.

"It’s going to get worse if the expansion happens, because there will be more trucks coming in to unload all the items needed to operate a full-on grocery store- a store that will be open 24/7."

An extension of the parking lot is also part of the plan, making for 945 spaces. The project would make use of the 5.26-acre undeveloped lot just south of Walmart. Landscaping and infrastructure improvements to that lot would be a part of the project.

The plan also includes relocation of the garden store to the other side of the building and the demise of the the tire and lube department.

A public hearing on the project will be held, but has yet to be scheduled. Comments on the EIR will be taken at the meeting as well.

The EIR will be circulated for a 45-day review period which ends February 3. The City of Santee announced that it welcomes public input during this review. 

All comments or responses should be sent to the following address:

Travis Cleveland, Associate Planner
10601 Magnolia Avenue 
Santee, CA 92071
TCleveland@cityofsanteeca.gov 
(619) 258-4100, ext. 160

Download the EIR for the project here