Chain Bookstore Opponents Unite

Capitola- A local bookstore operator and chain-store foes are uniting to find a way to keep a bookstore giant from adding a Capitola link.

"This time we're not going to leave a stone unturned," said Gwen Marcum, owner of Capitola Book Café on 41st Avenue. Marcum is opposed to a Borders Books and Music moving into the neighborhood. Redtree Properties announced last week it is one step away from closing a deal to make Borders the anchor tenant at the $17 million Capitola Crossings project on Bay Avenue.

The store however, first needs a use permit from the city. The matter is expected to go before the Planning Commision on Thursday and the City Council on Feb. 11.

A Redtree proposal in 1996 included the possibility of Borders becoming a tenant, and it drew immediate opposition. Borders officials eventually said the company was no longer interested, and the council approved the Redtree venture last summer on a 4-1 vote.

Now that Borders is back in the picture, Marcum said several hundred people have signed a petition opposing the bookstore's entry into the local market. Foes argues that independent bookstores, already feeling Internet competition, can't win a battle with large chain stores because of their huge inventories.

Capitola Councilwoman Stephanie Harlan said a group of locals is investigating a recent successful campaign to prevent a Borders opening on San Francisco's Union Street.

David Hughes, who has owned Solar Light Books on Union Street for 25 years, said Thursday that opponents seized on the requirement that new businesses must be similar in size to existing ones.

Most Union Street stores range from 2,000 to 2,500 square feet, he said. Borders sought to convert a six-story building into a 20,000-square-foot book emporium.

Conditional-use permits are required for nearly every business that comes to Capitola, said Kathleen Malloy, community development director. The city ordinance explaining conditional uses states that in "in considering an application for conditional use, the Planning Commission shall give due regard to the nature and condition of all adjacent uses and structures. Malloy added, however, that "we don't have existing policy in the General Plan which leads staff to believe it's not an approveable use."

The store proposed for Capitola, said Borders real estate manager Pamela Lent, is comparable to a two-story store the chain built in Sand City, which houses books, CDs and a coffee shop.

Redtree expects opposition. "We are certain our opponents will again rise to the occasion," Redtree officials wrote in a recent newsletter. "We expect strong political opposition from those quarters, especially from booksellers in Santa Cruz, who want you to have to drive to downtown Santa Cruz for a wider selection."

Mac Monte, owner of Deluxe Foods, which has operated for 22 years in Aptos, said he remembers the same large-store controversy when his father's store was in the proposal stage. "They wanted to leave it open land," he said. "Either make a blanket policy for the whole county, meaning we never should have let Toys R Us in, we never should have let Circuit City in, or don't enforce any policies."

Mayor Tony Gualtieri said he expects the store will win approval, as some council members have said they fear being viewed as anti-free market.

Barbara Graves, a member of Working for the Advancement of the Village Environment, which is opposed to Borders moving in, disagreed, noting that the council has an ordinance that allows them to say no. "I've read the ordinance myself," she said. "It says they can deny according to the nature and condition of the use and the site. How much broader can you get? It give a lot of discretionary leeway to the governing body."

Councilman Dennis Norton said he would wait until he sees the proposal to offer his opinion. "One thing I see to the community's advantage is that we still have the choice as consumers to shop where we want to shop," Norton said.

Borders would not be the first chain bookstore in Capitola, Norton noted. It would join B. Dalton Bookstore, a small chain in the Capitola Mall.

By ANNA MARIA BASQUEZ Sentinel staff writer

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