BOZEMAN, Mont. – City Commissioners gave grocery store WinCo approval for the final site plans at their Monday meeting after an attempted appeal.
The Winco project was approved in August by city planners and most recently the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 4 union appealed the project, claiming they do not want another big-box store in the city.
The city commission unanimously upheld the planning directors’ approval of the WinCo project.
Mayor Cyndy Andrus said, “I think it’s important to understand that our job is not to decide how many grocery stores Bozeman needs or Bozeman should have but to make sure they go through a process and meet criteria in our growth plan and our united code, our UDC code.”
The 75,000 square foot grocery store that will be located in the Target plaza now has the green light to go forward with their construction plans.
“They are ready and able to submit building permits, so that’s on their timeline,” said Marty Matsen, director of community development for the city of Bozeman. “We don’t have any timeline expected for that, but as soon as they get their construction drawings ready they can submit them to the building department for a building permit and go forward with the project.”
WinCo Food is an employee-owned supermarket based in Boise, Idaho. Having it come to Bozeman gives the city several opportunities.
“It will give us another option, certainly. It will provide some jobs and I think the location on the west side of town specifically will give another option for a grocery store,” Andrus said.
Matsen said, “We’ve been really happy with the partnership we’ve had with Winco and what they have agreed to do through the site plan process, with some extra landscaping and some street improvements up in that area that I think will be great for the area overall.”
WinCo Director of Corporate Communications Noah Fleisher said Winco is feeling ecstatic about coming to Bozeman and to bring low prices every day in every aisle. We reached out to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 4 Union President and have not heard back.
