Wal-Mart to New York: Drop Dead
From the New York Times:
Wal-Mart Chief Writes Off New York
Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit.
Frustrated by a bruising, and so far unsuccessful battle to open its first discount store in the nation’s largest city, Wal-Mart’s chief executive said yesterday, “I don’t care if we are ever here.”
H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of the nation’s largest retailer, said that trying to conduct business in New York was so expensive — and exasperating — that “I don’t think it’s worth the effort.”
Mr. Scott’s remarks, delivered at a meeting with editors and reporters of The New York Times, amounted to a surprising admission of defeat, given the company’s vigorous efforts to crack into urban markets and expand beyond its suburban base in much of the country. In recent years, Wal-Mart has encountered stout resistance to its plans to enter America’s bigger cities, which stand as its last domestic frontier.
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Topics: | Organizing |
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 | Permalink
Athens, GA. Wal-Mart Warned: Stop Selling Contaminated Cypress Mulch
An environmentalist in Georgia has warned big box retailers with garden centers to stop selling contaminated ‘cypress’ mulch, or face legal liability for doing so. Environmental scientist Dr. Sydney Bacchus of Athens, Georgia, sent a note this week to the legal departments of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Publix, informing them of the “significant corporate libability” they face for distributing and selling mulch made from cypress trees. “Your stores are selling stacks of cypress mulch in plastic bags,” Bacchus told Wal-Mart. “Cypress is a native wetland tree in the southeastern United States. Redbay, another tree native to the southeastern United States, occurs in areas where cypress trees grow. Redbay trees are being infected with a lethal fungal pathogen transported by the Asian beetle, Xyleborus glabratus. That invasive alien beetle initially was documented in 2002 near the Savannah, Georgia port, presumably arriving in contaminated material imported from Asia...In its native lands, that beetle is known to attack all species in the redbay family, in addition to tress in the oak/beech and wax myrtle family...After trees are infected by the pathogen, the leaves ‘wilt’ and the trees die.” According to Bacchus, redbay trees are logged and chipped together with cypress trees and sold as ‘cypress’ mulch. The chiping process does not kill the lethal pathogen or the Asian beetles in the infected trees. The beetles and the pathogens are “too small to be noticed” during the chipping process, and the bagged materials sold at these big box stores have the beetles and pathogens in them. “Your corporate liability from distributing and selling ‘cypress’ mulch is not restricted to the potential contamination of the mulch with the Asian beetle and lethal fungal pathogen it carries,” Bacchus notes. “During my researh on cypress in the southeast, I documented other fungal pathogens in cypress trees that do not require an insect vector and are capable of infecting many different species of trees and non-woody species.” Bacchus says these mulch products are a threat to valued landscape trees and other plants, and that trying to treat this mulch with fungicides and pesticides would only create a hazardous product for customers. The legal liability from selling contaminated ‘cypress’ mulch is that unsuspecting customers may kill their tress and other plants by using this mulch. Bacchus says the cypress tree is a “critical nesting habitat” for the federally protected wood stork, and the continued harvesting of cypress trees is a “taking” of the wood stork’s habitat. “In addition to the extensive corporate liability,” Bacchus concludes, “the ruinous practice of selling ‘cypress’ mulch carries a considerable anti-green stigma that a corporation concerned about its future would choose to avoid.” Bacchus gives the big box companies an out: there are environmentally sound alternatives to ‘cypress’ mulch, such as the chipped melaleuca, which is an alien invasive species. “Hopefully your prompt action to discontinue the distribution and sale of ‘cypress’ mulch at all of your stores will spare you from legal action arising frm damage caused by this mulch.”
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Topics: Environment
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink
Portsmouth, MI. State Officials Choose Wal-Mart Over Agricultural Preservation
State agricultural officials in Michigan, instead of protecting valuable farmland, are protecting Wal-Mart. The Bay City Times reports today that the state’s Department of Agriculture has reversed its earlier position, and allowed a landowner in Portsmouth, Michigan to squirm out of an agricultural preseveration deal years in advance, in order to make millions off a sale of his land to Wal-Mart. This project has been bitterly opposed in Portsmouth for the past two and a half years. A citizen group narrowly lost a rezoning vote in May of 2005. Portsmouth voters approved a rezoning for a Wal-Mart supercenter, but the vote spread between the two sides of the issue was very small. The vote was 884 in favor, to 621 opposed, which means that if only 132 people had switched their vote to against, the measure would have been defeated. The project subsequently got stalled at the state level, because the land Wal-Mart wanted was under an Act 116 agreement, which gave the landowner a tax break for preserving farmland. But this week, Richard A. Harlow, the state’s program manager for farmland preservation, ruled that the 27-acre parcel of land along M-15 could be released from Public Act 116. Property owner Chris Ratajczak can now sell his property to Wal-Mart for development. The state will require Ratajczak to repay all tax credits he has received on the property for the last seven years, plus 6 percent interest, but he can simply deduct this from his multi-million sales price to Wal-Mart, and come out a very rich man. The state will also require that Ratajczak set aside a permanent conservation easement on 54.5 acres within the township. In 2005, state officials refused to release the property from P.A. 116, saying it could lead to urban sprawl and that there were more reasonable sites in the area for a Wal-Mart supercenter.
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Topics: Environment | Zoning Regulations
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink
Rapho, PA. Wal-Mart’s Option Runs Out
The mood in Rapho township, Pennslyvania, is a lot lighter this week-end, as the shadow of a Wal-Mart supercenter has suddenly disappeared. The Intelligencer Journal reports today that Wal-Mart has let its option to buy 25 acres in Rapho along Route 283 expire, and they have not renewed it. The 200,000 s.f. superstore that would have been squeezed onto that land is also gone. “Wal-Mart’s option ran out, and they’re no longer interested in the site,” Rapho Township Supervisor Jere Swarr said. The landowner informed town officials of this dramatic change yesterday afternoon, so word is still spreading throughout this small community in scenic Lancaster county. Thus ends more than two years of turmoil in Rapho, when Wal-Mart first introduced a sketch of its plan to supervisors around Christmas of 2004. The company never did submit an application, though, but the shadow of the plan loomed over the town. As in many communities, all it took was Wal-Mart’s shadow to spur an opposition group into life. The Community & Farm Alliance, a group of local businesses, farmers and residents fought the plan since April of 2005. “We’re thrilled with the news,” Alliance spokeswoman Roxanne Bybel told the Intelligencer.
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Topics: Zoning Regulations
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink
American Canyon, CA. Judge Keeps Wal-Mart Construction On Ice
Despite the heat of controversy over a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter in American Canyon, California, the construction site has been on ice for the past four months. No more walls going up, no more nails being pounded.
Sprawl-Busters reported on November 21, 2006 that Wal-Mart was stunned by a court ruling in a superstore project in American Canyon, where local officials tripped over their own enthusiasm for the giant retail project known as Napa Junction. Construction on the superstore was well underway, the state Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned an earlier decision by the Napa Superior Court, which had ruled against two citizen groups in their efforts to block Wal-Mart. In a 37 page decision, Justice Linda Gemello found that the “city prejudicially violated the California Environmental Quality Act…(and) prejudically violated its zoning ordinance.” Now, four months later, Wal-Mart’s construction is still in limbo. According to the Vallejo Times Herald, a judge in Napa County Superior Court ruled March 22nd that Wal-Mart cannot return to constructing its superstore, but he refused to void the permits that the city has already granted for the project. Judge Raymond Guadagni----who is the same judge that the First District Court of Appeal ordered to reconsider the case---said that he lacked authority to require Wal-Mart to start from scratch on its permits. Yet Guadagni earlier in the same week had ordered some of the city’s permits to be voided. The judge also ruled that American Canyon has to address the issues raised by the Court of Appeals within two months. But city officials indicated that even though the judge did not throw out the building permit for the store, the city will vote to approve them again, as “the safe thing to do.” A Wal-Mart public relations spokesman told the Times Herald, “We are confident the city is complying with the direction of the court and we continue to hear from our customers and supporters that they are anxious for the project to move forward.” Residents of American Canyon were supposed to have their cheap chinese products by late January, so the citizen’s appeal has kept the shoppers at bay for nearly two months. American Canyon Community United for Responsible Growth and Citizens Against Poor Planning both forced the issue into the courts---just as Wal-Mart would have done if its permits had been denied. Work on the Wal-Mart project has not taken place since November---not because of what the citizens’ groups did---but because the city violated state environmental laws and city zoning ordinances when it approved the store. The Appeal Court ruled that the size of the store had not been accurately represented and its impacts on traffic and the local economy had not been adequately studied.
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Topics: Environment | Traffic/Sprawl | Lawsuits
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink
Folsom, CA. Wal-Mart Abandons Its Superstore Plan
On July 20, 2006, Sprawl-Busters reported that a group called the Concerned Citizens of Folsom had organized to stop a proposed 208,412 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter on 25 acres of land off of Iron Point Road in Folsom, California. The company already has an existing Wal-Mart discount store in the city, which it is also trying to expand. This week, a local activist sent out this short note to her anti-Wal-Mart email list: “Great news, everyone! Wal Mart has officially withdrawn their application for the Iron Point Store. Additionally, the City is requiring that the proposed Wal Mart Supercenter undergoes an Environmental Impact Review for the expansion.” The Folsom Telegraph confirmed the news this week, reporting that Folsom would remain a “one Wal-Mart town.” The news ended almost a one year battle to stop the superstore. In April, 2006, the retailer announced its intention to build a second store in Folsom---but now the company has pulled its superstore plans as of March 21, 2007, with no explanation. Instead, company officials indicate they will focus on converting its existing discount store into a supercenter by addilng 26,000 s.f. to the back of the store, allowing the interior square footage to include a full line grocery department. The expanded Folsom store would be a total of 153,678 s.f. The existing discount store was only built in 1992---but Wal-Mart has shut down hundreds of discount stores of that vintage to make way for their larger, more profitable superstores. A city spokeswoman said the permit process, including an Environmental Impact Report, could take nine to 12 months to complete.
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Topics: Environment | Site Fights & Local Ordinances | legislation |
Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 26, 2007 | Permalink
Northeast News Update: March 23, 2007
PENNSYLVANIA SITE FIGHT: INTERESTED, IF…
Neville interested if Wal-Mart leaves Kilbuck [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
If Wal-Mart officials abandon plans for a store on a landslide-prone plateau above Route 65 in Kilbuck, township officials on Neville Island say they have an industrial site that would be ideal for development.
PENNSYLVANIA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART LAWYERS ENTER THE FRAY
Wal-Mart claims 2 on board biased [Patriot News (Penn.)]
Wal-Mart attorneys argued yesterday that two members of the North Cornwall Twp. zoning hearing board are biased against the retail giant and should not decide the merits of a zoning change that cleared the way for a store on Cornwall Road.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 23, 2007 | Permalink
Midwest News Update: March 23, 2007
ILLINOIS SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART DEBATED
N. Aurora Wal-Mart debated [Kane County (Ill.) Chronicle]
Wal-Mart officials told village trustees Monday that switching the layout of a proposed building would create more noise for nearby residents.
INDIANA SITE FIGHT: NO SUPER WAL-MART ON SITE
Project shift means no Super Wal-Mart on site [NWI Times]
Although plans to open a Super Wal-Mart on the southeast corner of U.S. 41 and Main Street have been scrapped, that doesn’t mean the national retailer has turned its back on locating somewhere in south Lake County.
ILLINOIS SITE FIGHT: TOWN OK’S WAL-MART STORE DESPITE PROTESTS
Commission gives Wal-Mart green light [Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer]
Despite the objections of the people who filled the Council Chamber to overflowing, the Glen Carbon Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to approve THF’s site plan for the expansion of the Glen Carbon Wal-Mart store into a super center.
MISSOURI SITE FIGHT: OPPOSITION CONTINUES
Opposition to Wal-Mart expansion continues [Suburban Journals]
Local residents continue to voice opposition to the expansion of the Glen Carbon Wal-Mart into a Wal-Mart SuperCenter.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 23, 2007 | Permalink
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