After the Racine Plan Commission Wednesday voted 3-2 to reject CVS Pharmacy’s plan to relocate its West Racine operation to the corner of Ohio Street and Washington Avenue, an attorney for the developer said he will make the city council deliver a final vote on the project.
“We will make (Council members) vote,” Richard Donner is quoted in a story in The Journal Times. “If the City Council votes it down, then it’s dead.”
The vote was tied 2-2, with commission members Dennis Wiser and Molly Hall voting against the project and Melvin Hargrove and Vincent Esqueda voting in favor. Mayor John Dickert cast the final “nay.”
Earlier this year city staffers recommended the commission reject the proposal primarily because of the location and its impact on traffic at an already congested intersection. They provided a number of alternative sites – including the former Marcus Cinema at Perry and Washington – but Donner said CVS would not consider any other corner, the story continues.
Company representatives told the newspaper that CVS would manage the construction and improvements without any financial incentives from either the city or the state, that the new store actually makes the corner safer because there will only be two driveways instead of 10, and double the amount of taxes currently generated by the businesses there.
CVS Pharmacy wants to build a new, 13,000 square foot store at the corner of Ohio and Washington and would replace its current store a half-mile east at West and Washington.
CVS has an option to purchase the buildings housing Racine Cyclery, American Coin, the vacant building in between and the empty cash store next door to Racine Cyclery. The store would also need to buy at least three homes and level it all to make way for the new pharmacy and parking lot.
If CVS is approved, the bike shop will also close, and American Coin will relocate to a building on Lathrop Avenue purchased by CVS.