Monday, May 7th - City Council Appeal Hearing - Please attend if you can!

Subway is appealing the Planning Commission's UNANIMOUS decision to REJECT a conditional use permit for a Subway fast food restaurant at 29 Miller Avenue in downtown Mill Valley.  Over 1,125 residents, business owners, and property owners have signed this petition (including paper petitions).  You may also send comments to cityclerk@cityofmillvalley.org with a cc: to info@friendsofmillvalley.org. 

Reasons to uphold the Planning Commission's decision (note embedded links):

1.  Preserving “Small Town Character":  Smithsonian Magazine picked Mill Valley as the 4th Best Small Town in America in its May 2012 edition.  Mill Valley’s charming downtown is a source of pride to residents and attracts customers to shop there.

2.  Subway is the World's Largest Fast Food Chain:  Subway (36,751 outlets) has passed McDonalds (33,000+) as the largest fast food chain in the world. We already have a Subway in Tam Junction. If Subway is allowed to open a 2nd outlet downtown, what stops McDonald’s from being next?

3.  The Mill Valley General Plan Restricts “Chain” Stores and “Franchise” businesses downtown:   Mill Valley's General Plan provides guidance for protecting Mill Valley's small town character and independent local-serving businesses from national chains.  Per the State of California, a General Plan is defined as “..the city's blueprint for future development.  A constitution made up of the goals and policies upon which the city council… and planning commission will base their land use decisions.”  

Excerpts from our General Plan:

Page 53 - A majority of the local-serving businesses in the area are owned and operated by small, independent proprietors. Many are local residents who have a sincere interest in the future of the town and are therefore involved in local organizations and institutions, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the School District and local service clubs. Their activities help to build a type of community feeling and strength that contributes to the "small town character" of the Mill Valley / Tamalpais Planning Area. This environment may be threatened by interest on the part of Bay Area and national chain stores to locate in Mill Valley. Their resources are such that they will, over time, tend to force out the independent proprietor... therefore, an issue for this General Plan is to initiate programs that balance the concern that local-serving businesses be preserved against undue competition by chain stores 

 Page 55 - Lytton Square is the area hardest hit by rising rents and pressure to convert to a tourist-oriented market. There is a concern that without additional planning guidelines, existing businesses will continue to be replaced with businesses that are willing to pay increasingly higher rents, including franchise or chain stores which come to Mill Valley with greater resources than those of the many small independent proprietors that are currently located in the area. 

4. Conditional Use - NOT Permitted Use:  The Subway fast food restaurant (all restaurants) is not a permitted use. Conditionally permitted uses require the Planning Commission to conduct a public hearing and make a decision based on the finding of fact that the establishment of the use will be consistent with the General Plan and not be detrimental to the health, safety, peace, morals, comfort or general welfare of the persons residing or working in the neighborhood, nor the general welfare of the City. Although Baskin Robbins was previously at this location, it was established prior to the adoption of the current Zoning Ordinance and operated as a legal non-conforming use. "Ice cream and yogurt shops" is a separately identified use than "restaurants (eat-in and takeout)" per Municipal Code section 20.40.030. Ice cream shops are a less intensive use than a fast food restaurant, which will generate excessive trash, litter, odor, traffic, and parking issues for the location and the residential neighborhood that borders it.

5. Mill Valley Downtown Business Community Opposes Subway:  See the listing below of all the downtown local-servicing businesses that have written letters or signed the petition opposing Subway. 

6. Local-Based Businesses Boost the Regional Economy:  Local-based businesses (as opposed to national chains) source a higher percentage of their supply chain locally, which has an economic multiplier effect for the region well beyond consumers' purchases. Sonoma State University prepared a study, “The Economics of Going Local: Oliver’s Market as a Case Study”, which shows that every $100 spent on Oliver’s local goods generates at least a 32% larger economic impact on Sonoma County, over 100% more benefit than derived from non-local stores selling goods sourced outside Sonoma County. For every 10 grocery workers hired by Oliver’s, there are a total of 17 jobs created in Sonoma County. It is unlikely that Subway sources any of its food supplies locally.

7. The Applicant is Not a Small Locally Owned Business:  Akki Patel, the Subway applicant, identifies himself as the Development Agent for North Bay Development, Inc. and Letap Group, Inc.  A Google search identifies Chirayu Patel of San Francisco as the President of these companies along with:  Prachima Inc., C2P Ventures Inc., Dech Foods, Inc., Dech, Inc., Fairfield Subway, Inc., GDDC, Inc, Hvl Subway, Inc., Lake County Subway Development, Inc., Letap Acquisitions, Inc., Letap Group, Inc., Letap Hotel, Inc., Letap Restaurants, Inc., Lower Lake Subway, Inc., Lucerne Subway, Inc., Marin City Subway, Inc., Nocal Subs, Inc., Novato Subway, Inc., Prcm, Inc., Scsd, Inc., Sfsd, Inc., Subway North Bay Development, Inc., Subway Petaluma Development, Inc., Subway Sonoma County Development, Inc., Windsor Subway, Inc., Wine Country Subway, Inc.  One document suggests that the Letap Group, Inc. alone is associating with 30+ Subways. Don Fertman, Subway's Director of Development, states that there are over 1,500 Patels in the company's franchisee database. It's a common name, but also possible that this is part of larger family empire. The City did not request this information from the applicant.

8.  Subway’s False Claims about Healthy Foods:  Subway has spent billions of dollars deceptively marketing itself as a healthy (“eat fresh”) fast food alternative. But Subway's food is only delivered once per week (per the Applicant at the PC meeting)!

CBS News: …Let's start with the bread, which is baked in the stores, emitting a distinct and lingering odor even outside. The 9-grain wheat, white and sourdough varieties are made with goodies like sodium stearoyl lactylate and ammonium sulfate, which are used as a dough conditioners, and azodicarbonamide, a bleaching chemical most commonly employed in the production of foamed plastics. In the UK, azodicarbonamide has been classified as a substance that can cause asthma when used in an industrial setting.        

Health Wyze Report: …It should surely be called false advertising when their "Eat Fresh" commercials are actually advertising vegetables that will last for years without deteriorating.  They are practically embalmed.  Take for example, the lettuce, which is supposedly pure, but never seems to turn brown.  Sodium benzoate is not just a preservative, but it is also a mutagen that turns off a vital part of the DNA, causes allergies, reduces the I.Q., and provokes A.D.H.D. symptoms.  To ensure that peppers do not change color during months (or years) of storage, Subway's peppers contain petroleum in the form of yellow #5.

9. Subway Smell: Subway restaurants have a well-documented smell that many people are sensitive to, that will permeate the adjacent stores and surrounding area. Why Do Subway Restaurants Smell Awful?​,  What's Behind the Subway Bread Smell?​, Condo inundated with strong and nauseating food odors 

The following Mill Valley downtown businesses have so far signed the petition or wrote letters opposing a Subway fast food restaurant at 29 Miller Avenue:

Avatar’s Punjabi Burrito - 15 Madrona

B-Jeweled - 31 Sunnyside

Baby & Kids Company - 12 Miller

Beth’s Community Kitchen - 34 Miller

Bungalow 44 - 44 E. Blithedale

Buzz on Kid’s Shoes - 85 E. Blithedale

Eileen Fisher - 149 Throckmorton

El Paseo - 17 Throckmorton

Famous For Our Look - 96 Throckmorton

Lam’s Kitchen - 89 E. Blithedale

Lando - 116 Throckmorton

Marin Optometry - 158 Throckmorton

Material Grace - 11 Throckmorton

Mili - 77 Throckmorton

Mili Encore - 53 Throckmorton

Mili Shoes & Outerwear - 75 Throckmorton

Mill Valley Hat Box - 118 Throckmorton

Mill Valley Inn - 165 Throckmorton

Mill Valley Market - 12 Corte Madera

Mill Valley Mercantile - 167A Throckmorton

Mint - 167B Throckmorton

Moss & Daughters - 2 El Paseo

Pearl’s Phatburger - 8 E. Blithedale

Piazza D'Angelo - 22 Miller

Robert Green Fine Arts - 154 Throckmorton

Showroom - 108 Throckmorton

Small Shed Flatbread - 17 Madrona

Stefano’s Pizza - 11 E. Blithedale

SummerHouse - 21 & 57 Throckmorton

Sweetwater Music Hall - 19 Corte Madera

The Store - 68 Throckmorton

Two Neat - 111 Throckmorton

Tyler Florence Shop - 59 Throckmorton

Vasco - 106 Throckmorton

Vintage Wine & Spirits - 67 Throckmorton

Wink Optometry - 70 Throckmorton

The Banana Republic founders also signed the petition!