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Site Fight of the Week: Bend, OR

Topics: Oregon | Site Fights & Local Ordinances

Our Community First—a broad coalition of neighbors, union members, businesspeople, land use activists and ordinary people--has ended Wal-Mart’s first application for a Supercenter in Bend, Oregon. But the Site Fight continues as Wal-Mart announces new application.

Strong community support over the past 18 months led to a land use hearing officer’s denial of the Supercenter application, the Bend City Council’s refusal to overturn her decision, and a state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) decision that upheld the original denial of the application.

Wal-Mart will not appeal the LUBA decision and has instead announced it will “revise” its application and start the entire process over. That includes new “community” meetings, a new application, new public hearings and, of course, more community debate.

Our Community First issued the following statement on August 15, 2006:

Our Community First continues opposition to Wal-Mart Supercenter

Our Community First is committed to building the community opposition to a Wal-Mart Supercenter and confident that a growing number of Bend residents strongly believe that a Supercenter is bad business for Bend.

Broad citizen participation has made all the difference and will continue to be the key to stopping a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Bend. LUBA’s denial of Wal-Mart’s Supercenter application vindicates the hard work of ordinary people in our community. Wal-Mart’s decision to move forward ignores community concerns.

We applaud the thousands of Bend residents and business owners who have stood up to Wal-Mart’s corporate arrogance by signing petitions, displaying lawn signs and bumper stickers, testifying in public hearings and attending rallies and events organized by Our Community First.

We are disappointed—but not surprised—that Wal-Mart has chosen to ignore thousands of Bend residents who oppose a Supercenter and will proceed with its plans despite unfavorable rulings from a city land use hearing officer, the Bend City Council, and Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).

Wal-Mart is used to having its own way regardless of community response. The corporation’s track record in communities across the U.S. attests to it’s willingness to spend millions of dollars to site a new store at the same time that it refuses to provide employees a decent living standard, engages in predatory business practices that kill local businesses, and looks for ways to buy into the public process.

We expect that Wal-Mart will offer millions of dollars to promote transportation plans on the north side of Bend—so long as the so-called “solutions” make it easier for them to build a Supercenter.  But a development of this size would only add to traffic congestion, no matter what the plan, and would be another sign of runaway growth that worries so many Bend residents.

We encourage Wal-Mart to abandon its Supercenter plans and instead channel those millions of dollars into living wages and truly affordable health care for the 450 Wal-Mart employees in Central Oregon, to really listen to what opponents are saying in the public debate over their business practices, and to take other steps towards good corporate citizenship.

Our Community First urges supporters to display “Not Another Wal-Mart” lawn signs and bumpers stickers, write letters to the media about Wal-Mart, speak out against the Supercenter, and participate in upcoming OCF activities.

Posted by Road Team on Thursday, August 24, 2006