OJAI : Residents Attack Plan to Sell Bowling Alley

More than 100 angry Ojai residents and small-business owners denounced a plan to convert the city’s only bowling alley into a Pay Less Drug Store outlet.

“We’ve gotten hundreds of signatures from people to keep the bowling alley,” Ojai business owner Joy Grove told the Planning Commission on Wednesday. “This will impact what’s available to our children.”

Grove, who owns a surplus store near Ojai Valley Bowl, is vice president of the 50-member Ojai Valley Retailers’ Assn. Merchants from the group have joined forces with bowling enthusiasts and other residents who say their small town already lacks recreational opportunities.

Ray Payne, a Pay Less real estate manager, said after the meeting that his company will not decide whether to submit a formal application to the city to buy the property from the Boersch Family Trust until next week.

But Pay Less has agreed to buy the trust’s 6,000-square-foot building if the city approves the chain’s plan, officials said.

The commission took no formal action, but several members said the preliminary Pay Less proposal does not meet Ojai’s standards.

Commissioners listened to a flurry of complaints from residents and small-business owners who argued that a Pay Less store will bring large trucks that will clog city streets. Some also complained that the large chain store would undersell independent merchants, putting them out of business.