The city planning department received an application Nov. 15 detailing a plan for national retailer Target to build a 155,000-square-foot store.

The big-box store would rise on the vacant land owned by Title Two Investment Corp. on La Madrona Drive between the Hilton Santa Cruz/Scotts Valley and Silverwood Lane.

Residents of the 90-home Monte Fiore gated community, on Silverwood Lane west of the site, are protesting the plan.   

Construction, however, would be months or years away.

Mayor Dene Bustichi estimated that the city won’t make a decision until May or June 2008, saying it’s too early to say whether a new Target store is right for the city.  

Bustichi said the store could generate about $500,000 in new sales-tax revenue for the city each year. This estimate is based on taxes generated by the county’s only other Target, a 93,000-square-foot store in Watsonville.

Title Two filed for a planned development permit and design review. City planners will check the proposal and send it to the planning commission for a recommendation, which will be presented to the City Council for final approval.

After approval, it takes about a year to build and stock a store.

According to the plan, Target would build the store into the hillside, with the front entrance facing the Hilton and the back of the building bordering Silverwood.

A two-deck parking lot with 517 parking spaces and two exits on La Madrona Drive would be built north of the store, closer to the Hilton.

About 44 percent of the 17½-acre site would be covered by the building and parking lot. Lighting would be directed toward the store and parking lot.

It would be a “general merchandise” store, not a Super Target with a full-sized supermarket, according to company spokeswoman Delia McLinden. A typical Target of that size generates 150 to 250 jobs, she said.

The proposal immediately drew opposition from the Monte Fiore Homeowners Association, said group president Frank Kertai.

“I don’t think any one of us ever anticipated a big-box store over there,” Kertai said.

Kertai has started a petition against the store, and already more than 60 percent of Monte Fiore residents have signed on.

The petition lists concerns about traffic congestion, noise and lighting pollution and contends that the road cannot support the large trucks a major retail store would bring.

Target is willing to address community concerns, McLinden said.

“We take community partnership very seriously,” she noted. “We respect local communities’ interests and work diligently to respond to concerns over store architecture, noise, traffic and other interests.”  

Hilton general manager Rich Higdon isn’t impressed by the plan, even though he foresees little of no impact on the hotel.

“I don’t think it’s right for the community,” he said. “I would really like to see a business complex.”

The property had been planned for an office development, but Title Two abandoned that idea when office vacancies in the area recently skyrocketed.

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