CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: CLOVIS COUNCIL OVERTURNS WAL-MART APPROVAL, WILL STUDY IMPACT MORE
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Clovis council votes for more study on mall with Wal-Mart [Fresno Bee (Calif.)]
Last year’s approval of a 491,000-square-foot Clovis shopping center anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter was overturned Monday night by the Clovis City Council.
The council voted 5-0 to decertify the environmental report and the project’s site plan without discussion. No members of the public addressed the issue.
The shopping center proposed for the northeast corner of Herndon and Clovis avenues includes a Wal-Mart Supercenter that has been the focal point of a legal battle between the city and shopping center opponents.
In August, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Wayne Ellison ordered the city to reverse its approval of the shopping center because an environmental impact report for the project was not sufficient. Ellison said the report failed to address urban decay and water supply issues beyond the Clovis city limits.
The judge said the city must revise those two portions of the report and redo its public hearings for the shopping center. On six other issues, the judge said the city’s environmental document met state environmental guidelines.
Opponents of the shopping center contend that the judge’s order requires the city to redo the environmental document.
It will be up to the developer, Paynter Realty, to undertake the expanded reports on urban decay and water and the impacts on surrounding communities, including the city of Fresno. After the reports are finished, the environmental document and site plan for the project will be heard by the Clovis Planning Commission and then go to the City Council.
In 2004, Ellison said the city should prepare an environmental report after opponents challenged the project in court.
The Clovis City Council certified that environmental report last October, and opponents quickly challenged it in court again.
In addition to Wal-Mart, the developers signed Kohl’s, Petco, Ross, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Dress Barn as tenants.
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, September 16, 2008
