Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Fred Meyer hopes to add another 10,000 square feet to its Wasilla store, but city and state officials want to make sure the retail giant doesn't gum up traffic.

The expansion bid goes before the Wasilla Planning Commission tonight.

The store at the congested intersection of the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways would grow on its eastern side, now the site of a garden center, according to plans submitted to the city.

Fred Meyer hopes to add a covered roof to the garden center, modify parking and shift a well-used "drive aisle" about 30 feet east.

The proposed expansion would reduce the number of parking spaces in the lot from 880 to 849, according to documents on file with the city. It would also change traffic patterns in a busy side corridor between Fred Meyer and restaurants, including A&W and KFC.

A new Target store is expected to open this fall across the Palmer-Wasilla Highway from Fred Meyer. A traffic light on the Palmer-Wasilla just north of the Parks -- between the two retail properties -- is "very important to circulation" in the area, wrote Scott Thomas, a state transportation engineer, in a comment to the city.

Thomas recommended the city not allow parking patterns that discourage drivers from using the traffic lane in the parking lot at the light.

City planner Jim Holycross recommends that planning commissioners look closely at the project's effect on traffic circulation and at the adequacy of parking and landscaping plans.

The Wasilla Planning Commission meets at 7 p.m. today in Wasilla City Hall, 290 E. Herning Ave.

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call her in Wasilla at 907-352-6711.

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