Planning Commission Rejects Appeal by Opponents of Pay Less Project : Ojai Valley: Challenge of proposed Mira Monte drugstore is stymied by county panel’s 2-2 vote.

Environmentalists fighting the opening of a discount drugstore in Mira Monte on the grounds that it would damage the small-town character of the Ojai Valley lost a major battle Thursday.

After a two-hour hearing, the Ventura County Planning Commission rejected an appeal by opponents of Pay Less drugs--thus clearing the way for the chain to open an outlet in the Valley Market building.

Although Thursday’s meeting focused on the traffic that the store would generate, opponents of chain stores believe that Pay Less and other discount stores will put local independent shops out of business.

In October, the company received a routine permit to open an 8,000-square-foot outlet in the Valley Market building. Because Mira Monte is an unincorporated area, no public hearing was required.

That lack of a public forum for the initial permit has led some valley residents to see Pay Less as the symbol for a larger issue: the discrepancy between county policies and the city of Ojai’s tighter restrictions on development.

Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, one of the groups concerned about the impact of discount stores, had fought to stop the Pay Less project on the grounds that it would add traffic to congested California 33 and draw customers from a much wider base than the market did.

Specifically, the group challenged a traffic study by a Santa Barbara engineering firm that showed that a store such as Pay Less would attract 308 fewer car trips per day than the Valley Market and 23 fewer car trips at rush hour.

Stan Greene, the group’s president, said the study was flawed because it misclassified Pay Less as a “specialty retail” store, rather than a discount store or supermarket.

“This is a drugstore in name only, not in content,” he said.

But Ray Payne, who represented Pay Less at the hearing, took issue with Greene’s argument and pointed out that the drugstore would be less than half the size of the typical Pay Less. “This is going to be a neighborhood store,” he said.

The group and other residents failed to convince the Planning Commission that Pay Less would add more cars to California 33 than the grocery store.

“I haven’t received sufficient new information to say that this type of business should not be there,” said Betty Taylor, one of two commissioners who voted against the appeal during the hearing.

Two other commissioners voted in favor of the appeal, saying they wanted more information about traffic figures.

Chairman Robert Muraoka did not attend the meeting, and the appeal failed because it lacked a majority of votes on the five-member commission.

Citizens to Preserve the Ojai has until Dec. 12 to appeal the Planning Commission’s decision to the Board of Supervisors.

Greene said the decision on whether to appeal will be based on the group’s ability to raise $800 to file the action with the county.

Pay Less has been a point of controversy in the valley since the summer, when the company announced plans to buy Ojai’s only bowling alley.

After residents and merchants protested the loss of the bowling alley at a meeting of the city’s Planning Commission, the Costa Mesa-based company began searching for another site.

On Thursday, half a dozen residents spoke against Pay Less, while four people spoke in favor and another nine signed cards saying they supported the project. In addition, 61 residents of the valley had signed a petition in favor of Pay Less.

At the hearing, Pay Less opponents cited concerns ranging from the loss of a neighborhood grocery to the impact Pay Less would have on smaller merchants.

“There should be a study to see if the population of the Ojai Valley can support a sixth pharmacy without jeopardizing the life of other businesses,” Ojai resident Diane Atchley said.

Ojai Planning Director Bill Prince urged the commission to ask for a more in-depth study on traffic impacts.