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Pleasanton OKs gas station, new Starbucks drive-through near Safeway
Construction will start next month with both facilities to open in early 2013

by Jeb Bing

Safeway was given the OK by the Pleasanton City Council on Tuesday night to start construction on a self-serve gas station and a new Starbucks coffee shop with drive-through service next to its Lifestyle supermarket at Valley and Bernal avenues.

The council voted 4-1 to approve the Safeway plan after more than an hour of discussion over potential traffic tie-ups at the already-busy intersection, one of the city's most congested. In the end, the only stipulation made, however, at the insistence of Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, was that Safeway also install at least three electric vehicle charging stations in the store's parking lot

Councilman Matt Sullivan, who opposed building the new Safeway supermarket three years ago, also voted against allowing the company to add a gas station at its store.

Safeway representative David Bowldy said construction of both the gas station and the coffee shop will start next month with both likely to open early next year.

When the new Starbucks is completed, Starbucks will close its existing coffee house in the shopping center across Bernal. Starbucks also operates a coffee shop inside the Lifestyle supermarket as well as at its other supermarket in Pleasanton, located at Santa Rita Road and Valley Avenue.

Preliminary work has already started at the Lifestyle store site where Starbucks and the gas station will be built. The work is part of overall infrastructure work to prepare the 3/4-acre site for its new uses. With Tuesday night's council approval, Safeway can now apply for permits to start construction work in earnest.

The three-bay, nine-pump self-service gasoline station will be built in front of the main entrance to Wells Fargo Bank with Starbucks planned for the remainder of the site, between the gas station and the northbound I-680 off-ramp.

The station will have the same hours as the supermarket, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A small operations building will house the station cashier, where small items, such as candy, will be sold, but the 24-foot-high kiosk will not be a mini-mart, Safeway officials said.

Three sets of three fueling pumps will line each of three bays, with dual hoses to accommodate 15 vehicles at a time, with a "stacking" area capable of holding another 18 vehicles. The pumps will offer low- and high-octane gasoline and diesel fuel.

Two underground fuel storage tanks will each hold 30,000 gallons of fuel, with one for low-octane gasoline and the second divided into three compartments to hold mid- and high-octane gasoline and diesel fuel. Suppliers will make an estimated three deliveries a day over a 24-hour period seven days a week.

A new CVS store is also planned at the southern boundary of the Safeway Gateway Center site.