Hobby Lobby announced its plans for Santa Clarita expansion have been pushed back to 2017, a corporate official said Wednesday.
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The Oklahoma-based craft store chain involved in a controversial Supreme Court decision on health care and birth control signed a lease on a Santa Clarita Valley property last year.
Originally planned to open early this year, the opening has been pushed back — but a corporate official Wednesday said he was unclear of the reason.
“We are coming to Santa Clarita, but it looks like it’s going to be summer of 2017,” said Vince Parker, correspondence manager for the store.
“I couldn’t even tell you the reason,” he said, citing he was unclear if it was a permit issue or part of a temporary change in plans.
The store is keeping its lease on the location for the time being, and when the store does come to Santa Clarita, it’ll be at the planned location at Bouquet Canyon Plaza, near Newhall Ranch Road and Bouquet Canyon Road.
The site is not currently listed in the store’s planned openings, which can be seen by clicking here.
“Hobby Lobby has signed a lease for the former 52,000 square foot Orchard Supply Hardware space at the Bouquet Canyon Shopping Center,” according to a news release from Cypress Retail Group, which posted the information on its site.
The Hobby Lobby location is part of a 200,000 square foot shopping center that includes Best Buy, Trader Joe’s, Petco, Office Max and Sola Salon as tenants.
Hobby Lobby is scheduled to open their doors in early 2015. The lease was announced in July.
Related: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
In the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court ruled June 30 that federal law gives for-profit businesses owned by a small group a right to refuse, for religious reasons, to provide birth control methods and services for their employees, according to a SCOTUSblog post by Lyle Denniston.
The 5-4 vote gained national attention last year for the craft store’s policies, which ran counter to “Obamacare” regulations as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The court found: “As applied to closely held corporations, the regulations promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services requiring employers to provide their female employees with no-cost access to contraception violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” according to the blog post.
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Is it open or not? I have heard different comments and heard they were interviewing for positions?