Appeals Court Rejects Bid to Block Store

Environmentalists who challenged construction of a grocery store and mini-market in Gardena, near the Willows wetlands, have lost their case.

Now the city and the developer can concentrate on getting a tenant for the vacant grocery store at Artesia Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, City Manager Ken Landau said.

Last week the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the city had properly conducted its environmental impact report before a grocery store building was finished eight months ago near the 13 acres of wetlands.

The Los Angeles Recreation and Open Space Assn. filed a lawsuit in December 1994 charging that the shopping center’s construction would harm the marshy land that is home to some endangered species. However, in June 1994, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Gardena.

Association members, who were not available for comment, appealed the decision.

The legal dispute goes back to 1994 when the city bought eight acres of surplus Caltrans land. Gardena cleaned up the soil and sold the land to Gardena Vidovich Limited Partners, which built a grocery store and leased it to Smith’s Food King. Smith’s, however, has decided to pull out of the California market.

Smith’s put its lease up for auction Oct. 24, along with other leases in California, but Gardena officials have not yet heard whether it has been sold.