West Haven, CT. Neighbors Want Wal-Mart To Turn Down The Noise

Topics: | Community Impact

Wal-Mart Store #3803 at 515 Sawmill Road in West Haven, Connecticut has
been making some noise in the media recently---but its not the kind of
noise the company wants to hear. TV. Channel 8 reports this week that
neighbors of the West Haven Wal-Mart want to give the Mayor of their city
an earful regarding their noisy commercial neighbor. West Haven Mayor John
Picard has an “Office on the Road” program in which he goes out into the
community to listen to the public---and this week he’s going to hear
plenty about Wal-Mart. The city turned a deaf ear to residents when this
huge retail store was being proposed. The neighbors were concerned about
the traffic, light and noise impacts of a store so close to residential
property. This store first opened on March 21, 2007. According to
Wal-Mart’s press release at the time, the new store “brings new economic
benefits to the area.” But all it brought neighbors was more traffic and
noise. At the time, Mayor Picard was effusive in his praise for the
project. “The West Haven community is looking forward to a productive
corporate partnership with Wal-Mart,” Picard was quoted by Wal-Mart’s PR
department. But the 141,980 s.f. store thought that giving the community
“many appealing elements…including earth-tone colors, concrete and wood
laminate flooring throughout the store, wider aisles and energy-efficient
lighting,” would keep the neighbors happy. But neighbors don’t care about
the wood laminate flooring---they say they can’t put up with the racket
the store makes. The store’s Tire & Lube Express, with its hours from 7
a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week have forced the neighbors to seek
out the Mayor. Mayor Picard is coming to the Wal-Mart on August 21st for
his ‘Office on the Road’ program, but neighbors in West Haven say they
have been shouting about the noise problems for more than a year, with
little result. One neighbor who works nights, told Channel 8 he can’t
sleep during the day because of the store’s noise. The neighbors say they
have met with Wal-Mart, but the volume is still turned up. The Tire & Lube
Express was designed to be closest to nearby homes. Residents have pleaded
for a sound barrier, or fence, or even air conditioning for the auto
center so the garage bay doors could be closed during store hours. But
Wal-Mart has done nothing. So the Mayor is coming to sit in the Wal-Mart
Personnel Office for 4 hours in the afternoon, and he’s not going to like
what he hears.

This project should never have been approved during the planning process
with a tire and lube auto center located near homes. This was the city’s
fault. The noisest parts of a Wal-Mart operation are its loading docks,
and its TLE store. If officials and the neighbors say nothing, Wal-Mart
will put these functions anywhere they want. But these are not
residential-friendly features of the store, and communities have found out
the hard way that Wal-Mart can be a very noisy neighbor. Even sound walls
and other ‘mitigation’ factors provide little relief. As one resident who
has lived next to a Wal-Mart for years told Sprawl-Busters: “If you’re
loving Wal-Mart, you ain’t living near Wal-Mart.” Residents battling big
box stores should insist that municipal officials ask for an independent
noise study to be conducted for every proposed Wal-Mart---and not allow
the company to present its own studies to suffice. Neighbors need to make
noise during the hearing process---not a year after the store is built.
The residents of West Haven will be heard, but they are raising their
voices too little, and too late. Readers are urged to make two calls to
support these West Haven taxpayers: The first call is to the West Haven
Wal-Mart, at (203) 931-2081. Ask for the store manager, and tell him: “I
hope you can hear your neighbors complaining about the noise your store
generates. It’s time to turn the volume down at your store, and recognize
that you’re operating in a residential neighborhood.” Then place a second
call to Mayor Picard at (203) 937-2081 and tell him: “Mr. Mayor, you
welcomed the Wal-Mart store on Sawmill Road---but you allowed a
residentially-incompatible store to be built. This store is nearly the
size of three football fields, and the company has taken no steps to
appease the neighbors’ complaints over noise. When this store opened in
March of 2007, you promised it would mean a ‘productive corporate
partnership with Wal-Mart.’ Now’s the time for you to demand a better
partnership, and bring some relief to the homeowners who have put up with
the brunt of this un-neighborly conduct on Wal-Mart’s part. The neighbors
have said it loud and clear----now its time for the city to get Wal-Mart
to tone it down.”

Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, August 21, 2008