CANADA SITE FIGHT: ANOTHER WAL-MART ON THE WAY IN B.C.
Wal-Mart to build Williams Lake Supercentre [Williams Lake Tribune (Canada)]
The world’s largest retailer announced Monday it is building an 118,000-square foot Supercentre on the construction site on South Lakeside Drive.
The project is expected to create 200 construction jobs, and the store is projected to employ more than 200 people for the community, Wal-Mart Canada director of corporate affairs Kevin Groh said.
“The development of a new Wal-Mart Supercentre represents an investment in excess of $30 million,” he said. “We are excited to be investing locally and thank the town for welcoming us.”
The Supercentre store, expected to open in late 2009, will carry the general merchandise of a traditional Wal-Mart store, and will include a grocery component with fresh produce, meat, baked goods, and meals to go.
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: | | | Canada
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: NOVEL IDEA IN ESTERO: RESIDENTS, NOT DEVELOPERS DECIDING GROWTH PLANS
Estero proves fickle about store projects [News-Press (Fla.)]
Two high-profile Estero projects traveled two different paths through the planning process, yielding two different results.
Plans to build a Wal-Mart at the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Estero Parkway were greeted with community support while Estero residents rallied against Ascot Development’s proposal for a large store on the southeast corner of Three Oaks Parkway and Corkscrew Road.
Ascot’s Midtown Estero project called for a big-box retailer at one point, but the similarities to Wal-Mart end there, according to the community.
Lee County commissioners rejected Ascot’s plans for a commercial center in September, favoring an earlier proposal for more than 230 homes and 90,000 square feet of retail space.
Midtown Estero sits across the street from two big-box projects - Lowe’s at Estero Town Commons and the yet-to-be-built Estero Crossing, which will include two big-box stores.
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: | Community Impact | | |
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT TO BE RECONSIDERED IN TARPON SPRINGS?
Tarpon Commissioner Questioning Wal-Mart Development Agreement [Suncoast News (Fla.)]
TARPON SPRINGS - City Commissioner Peter Dalacos wants to tackle the issue of whether Wal-Mart’s development agreement with the city to build a store on U.S. 19 has expired.
In a memo to City Manager Mark LeCouris, Dalacos has asked to have an agenda item, “Request for hearing determination of Wal-Mart certificate of concurrency,” placed on the City Commission’s Oct. 7 agenda.Commissioners will consider whether they want to reconsider the Wal-Mart development agreement issue Tuesday night at the meeting, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
If commissioners decide to hold a formal hearing on the issue it should be discussed at the Oct. 21 commission meeting, before the City Commission considers Wal-Mart’s request for an amendment to its site plan, Dalacos said.
City Attorney James Yacavone doesn’t think the agreement has expired. “It continues to be my legal opinion that a court will most probably interpret the development agreement to have approved an alternative phasing plan, which means Wal-Mart’s Certificate of Concurrency has not expired,” he wrote in a memo to commissioners.
An attorney for Concerned Citizens of Tarpon Springs, the environmental group opposed to Wal-Mart’s developing the planed Supercenter discount store-supermarket combo on the north bank of the Anclote River, asserts the retailer’s certificate of concurrency has expired.
A certificate of concurrency states the development complies with the city’s land development code, state-mandated comprehensive plan and other regulations. City planning and legal staff contends the Wal-Mart project complies with the land code and comprehensive plan, while environmentalists say it does not.
If the issue winds up in court, the retailer could ask a judge to interpret the development agreement and probably sue for damages, Yacavone wrote in the memo.
Topics: | | Community Impact | Zoning Regulations | | |
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | Permalink
NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: EXPERTS WEIGH IN IN TONAWANDA
NORTH TONAWANDA: NT First wants expert testimony [Tonawanda News (N.Y.)]
The sale of Bluebird Drive to Wal-Mart, a key step in getting the project underway, has been discussed by officials and Wal-Mart as they await a lawsuit from Frank Budwey and NT First.
Instead, Budwey late last month submitted a 180-signature petition to the North Tonawanda Common Council asking them to hear comments by their own traffic expert, Andrew Wolfe, Ph.D, also a professor at SUNY Utica, prior to any sale of the access road.
Wolfe addressed the Planning Commission March 11 with a 14-page report. Then, NT First requested more information as the plans had undergone several key changes.
“After the March 11th meeting they gave us information but they didn’t give us the whole package,” Budwey said.
A Freedom of Information request filed a couple of months after the presentation sought data used to establish traffic impact after planners added an entrance to the store’s proposed site on Wurlitzer Drive.
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: | Community Impact | Traffic/Sprawl | | |
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | Permalink
NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART OPPONENTS FACE NOVEMBER DEADLINE
WALMART: Smart Growth faces November deadline [Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (N.Y.)]
Smart Growth of Lockport has until mid-November to state the specifics of its appeal to stop construction of a Super Walmart on the site of the vacant Lockport Mall.
The state Court of Appeals heard a request by Walmart late last month to either dismiss Smart Growth’s case for its lack of stating specific grounds of its appeal, or to set a deadline date for the filing, according to Town of Lockport Attorney Daniel E. Seaman.
The court set Nov. 21 as the date by which Smart Growth must file its appeal particulars, Smart Growth attorney Daniel Spitzer said Monday.
When notice of appeal is filed, the plaintiff has up to nine months to state its case, Spitzer has said. Smart Growth filed notice of its intent in early June, meaning it could have had until early March 2009 to put its particular grievances in writing. The court’s ruling on Walmart’s request thus speeds up the timetable.
Preparing the appeal isn’t the arduous part, Spitzer said; it’s compiling the record of municipal proceedings that cleared the way for Walmart to build on the mall site. Smart Growth will make the deadline, he added.
Also see: Deadline set in appeal by Wal-Mart foes [Buffalo News (N.Y.)]
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: | | Community Impact | | |
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | Permalink
Atascadero, CA. One Candidate Supports Limit on Superstore Size On November Ballot
The Presidential election will be the preoccupation of millions of American voters on November 4th, but residents in one small California community will be focusing on a local vote with big impacts as well. One month from now, voters in Atascadero, California will go to the polls to decide whether or not to place a cap on the size of retail buildings. To prevent the initiative from passing, Wal-Mart is spending money on voter identification, TV ads, and other local organizing. They’ve got a super-size budget to spend on the Atascadero election.
Dozens of communities across California and the nation have used a size cap to limit the scale of new development in order to preserve character and quality of life, and to mitigate the adverse effects of traffic and environmental impacts. On December 18, 2007 local residents in Atascadero filed an initiative petition entitled “Taxpayers’ Initiative Ordinance To Reduce Costly Effects Of High Intensity Urban Development By Preserving Atascadero’s Unique Small Town Character.” Measure D-08, called the Atascadero “Shield Initiative”, prohibits commercial buildings in excess of 150,000 s.f., and prevents any store in excess of 90,000 s.f. from having more than 5% of its gross floor area dedicated to nontaxable goods, such as groceries. On the same day that voters take up this ballot question, they will also elect three new members to the Atascadero City Council. On July 7, 2006, Sprawl-Busters reported that the Rottman Group, a developer based in San Luis Obispo, California, announced that it had “concluded negotiations with Wal-Mart to partner in the development” of a project known as The Annex. Rottman said Wal-Mart has purchased 26 acres of land in the project area on the southeast parcel of The Annex. The Rottman Group called Wal-Mart “a strong anchor for the proposed project.”
Rottman said at the time, “We recognize that there are many issues surrounding the possible location of a Wal-Mart in Atascadero. We are not ignoring public comment, but are asking residents to give Wal-Mart a chance to introduce itself, correct misconceptions and make a case for why it will benefit Atascadero.” The Rottman Group claimed that The Annex would “bring people to Atascadero – including its downtown.” “We see our proposal as a win-win situation for Atascadero,” the developer said, “ providing shopping choices and significant new retail sales tax to help the city.” To try and fit into the city’s zoning code, Rottman scaled back its store, and on February 4, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart had returned with plans for a 146,507-s.f. store on Del Rio Road---a cut of about 25% in building size.
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: Organizing
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, October 06, 2008 | Permalink
Plans to build a Supercenter near Civil War battlefield taking heavy criticism
We’ve been following a story in recent weeks about how Wal-Mart wants to build a 141,000-square-foot supercenter on the edge of Wilderness Battlefield National Park in central Virginia. The plan came under heavy opposition in July by several historical/environmental/civil war preservation groups, collectively known as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, when they drafted a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott. The letter expresses the deep concern many feel over the proposed store:
This Super Wal-Mart would be built within one-quarter mile of the National Park and would pave the way for desecration of the Wilderness with unnecessary commercial growth. Such a large-scale development is inappropriate next to a National Park.
The Civil War Preservation Trust has launched an entire website to spread the word and garner support against the plan. They were quoted this week in an article from NBC-29:
According to Brent Lawrenz of the Civil War Preservation Trust, “It’s going to put a tremendous pressure on Route 20 which is 2 lanes and they’re proposing to re-route part of it through key battleground area.”
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Luke West on Friday, October 03, 2008 | Permalink
NEW HAMPSHIRE SITE FIGHT: HOOKSETT STORE GOING ‘GREEN’
New Hooksett Wal-Mart planning to go ‘green’ [Union-Leader (N.H.)]
HOOKSETT – The new Wal-Mart, slated to open next summer, announced plans this week to design an on-site treatment plant to process in-store wastewater.
Attorney Amy Manzelli of Concord-based firm Sulloway and Hollis attended a Hooksett Conservation Commission meeting Wednesday and briefed members on ways Wal-Mart intends to make the store a little more environmentally responsible.
By decreasing the size of the building from 224,000 to 162,000 square feet—a plan laid out last spring—and by processing wastewater on site, Wal-Mart says it wants to help reduce the impact on surrounding wetlands, Manzelli said.
“Wal-Mart is making an effort to green its stores,” Manzelli said. “That’s what we’re trying to do with this project.” The store is currently under construction on the corner of Bemus Road and Route 3A.
Read the rest of this story ...
Topics: | | Environment | | |
Posted by Luke West on Friday, October 03, 2008 | Permalink
