Safeway

A long-running debate over the future of a small southern Anne Arundel County town has taken a new turn, with the state Senate president moving to block a Safeway supermarket and strip mall in tiny waterfront Deale. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. has introduced a bill that would modify arcane rules on managing storm water runoff within a half-mile of the Chesapeake Bay -- but only in Anne Arundel and Calvert. His proposal would force Safeway to scale back drastically its proposed 77,000-square-foot plaza.

The Army Corps of Engineers says it won't suspend a wetlands permit for a proposed Safeway supermarket and strip mall in Deale, dismissing a high-ranking federal environmental official's concerns about the ecological impact. Safeway representatives hailed the corps' response to the Environmental Protection Agency, which had asked for a suspension of a wetlands permit the grocery chain needed to build on the site. "It puts to bed this issue the opponents keep firing off at us that we have not properly delineated wetlands and that impacts have increased," said Chris Bell, president of Green Castle Development, the Annapolis company working for Safeway.

Opponents of the Safeway supermarket planned for Deale issued a report yesterday that suggests the proposed plaza's parking lot could send toxic runoff into the nearby Rockhold Creek watershed, threatening aquatic life. But the study is not based on data specific to the Safeway site, and its author - who lives near Deale and volunteered her time to assist Safeway opponents - says the big concern is that no government agency has done a comprehensive environmental impact study. "The point is, nobody really knows for sure," Jacqueline D. Savitz, executive director of the nationwide environmental advocacy group Coast Alliance.

Reviving an embattled project many thought was dead, proponents of the Safeway planned in rural southern Anne Arundel County are gearing up for another clash with county officials and neighborhood activists. This time, the battle will be waged in County Council chambers Monday, when Safeway officials will argue against a proposed zoning change that could finally crush the company's decade-long attempt to build a large market at Routes 256 and 258 in Deale. The fight between a small but energetic group of residents and the national grocery chain isn't over, despite past actions including changes in state storm-water management regulations that many assumed would kill the plan.

The president of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council of AFL-CIO Unions was arrested at a Safeway supermarket in North Baltimore yesterday during a protest arranged to demonstrate solidarity between local unions and supermarket workers in California who have been locked out or on strike since October. Ernest R. Grecco was arrested as representatives of about 20 local unions picketed outside a Safeway store in the 4400 block of Harford Road. Grecco bought groceries in the store using pennies to pay. The penny purchase annoyed a shopper, and police removed Grecco from the store and handcuffed him. The Baltimore union members gathered at the supermarket to show support for about 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union who have been on strike or locked out since Oct. 11. Health care coverage is the main issue in the dispute between supermarket workers and Safeway, Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co., owner of Ralphs.

She accused him of meddling in a local zoning issue. He said she wasn't doing right by residents. Neither hid frustration with the other. But Friday, Anne Arundel County's top elected official and the state Senate president called a truce in their dispute over a proposed supermarket. County Executive Janet S. Owens gave grudging support to Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller's legislation, which is aimed at blocking a 55,000-square-foot Safeway store in Deale, a tiny southern Anne Arundel community.

Residents of Baltimore's historic Canton neighborhood are excited about a new development in their community. The local supermarket is about to get something it has never had before: competition.Safeway Inc., the second-largest supermarket chain in the Baltimore-Washington area in terms of sales and market share (the largest is Giant), will open a store today in the 2600 block of Boston St.Analysts say the new grocer will create a much-needed corridor of competition in the area -- giving a nearby Super Fresh store, in the 2700 block of Foster Ave., a run for its money.

Teamster unions that represent 700 workers at Safeway Stores' Mid-Atlantic distribution plant in Landover said yesterday the company's proposals for major wage and other contract concessions have little hope of being accepted, and they believe the company should look for other costs to cut.Union officials said they plan to propose at a meeting today with company officials, which state labor officials have agreed to mediate, that Safeway hire an independent consultant...

The two-year battle to keep a supermarket and strip mall out of South County has moved on to the county's board of appeals. Safeway Inc. is appealing the county's decision last month to deny the grocery store chain a waiver to build the shopping center on a flood plain at routes 256 and 258 in Deale. A hearing has not been scheduled. "We've been meeting and exceeding every requirement," said Greg TenEyck, director of public affairs for Safeway's regional headquarters in Lanham. "We feel that once the board of appeals reviews the case, we will receive the waiver."

Safeway, a grocery chain that closed its doors in Westminster 11 years ago, returns to the community today with the opening of a store on the booming west side, where the residents are many but the stores have been few.The site at the new $8 million College Square shopping center on Route 140, near Western Maryland College, is the national grocer's third store in the county. The others are in Eldersburg and Mount Airy. In Westminster, Safeway will compete against seven other supermarkets.