PALMDALE : Council Votes Down Proposed Kmart

Attention Kmart shoppers: Forget shopping at a Kmart store at 45th Street East and Avenue S.

The Palmdale City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday not to change its General Plan to allow construction of the discount store on a 13-acre lot.

The site at the southeast corner of 45th Street East and Avenue S is zoned residential, but the city Planning Department had recommended changing the zoning to community commercial.

However, residents living across Avenue S opposed the site of the proposed store, saying it would be incompatible with residential areas and would generate excessive traffic on 45th Street East, now a residential street.

“We’re obviously happy and very pleased,” said Gary Sande, one of seven neighborhood captains opposing the zoning change. “The City Council made a tough decision, especially considering the economy. We’re not trying to send a message to Kmart that we don’t want its business; it just was the wrong location.”

Sande said residents would not oppose a location at 47th Street East and Avenue S, about 1,000 feet away.

But Kirk Lazaruk, a project consultant, said that that location is probably not feasible from a marketing standpoint and that Kmart officials are re-evaluating their plans.

There is a Kmart in the center of the city, but officials were hoping to close that store and build two new stores, one on the west side of town near the Antelope Valley mall and the other on the east side, Lazaruk said.

“I’m pretty disappointed,” Lazaruk said. “I find it most disturbing that Kmart went along with the city’s desires, and then not to have a chance to have its project analyzed. I think that sends a dangerous message.”