WAL-MART WANTS TO FILL IN MORE WETLANDS IN TARPON SPRINGS, FL
Wal-Mart seeks new permit [St. Petersburg Times (Fla.)]
So, what’s Wal-Mart’s next move?
By all indications, it’s full speed ahead.
Company officials confirmed Thursday they’re moving forward with plans to build a Supercenter on the Anclote River.
“This is a site we continue to work on. There’s no change in its status,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Quenta Vettel.
Earlier this year, it appeared Wal-Mart had hit another roadblock in its four-year battle to build the store, when the city’s Board of Adjustment ruled that changes to the company’s site plan constituted major modifications. That meant Wal-Mart would have to go through more public hearings to gain approval.
Now, it looks like that’s exactly what the company is prepared to do.
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Topics: Environment |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
ALL WAL-MART PROJECTS IN MAINE PUT ON HOLD
Maine Wal-Mart projects on hold [Republican Journal (Maine)]
Wal-Mart put Maine projects in the planning stage on hold while the company restructures and there may not be any action for the rest of the year, says a Lincoln town official.
Ruth Birtz, economic development director in Lincoln, said a company official in New York told her recently that Wal-Mart will fill a vacant job in the firm’s real estate office in Boston after restructuring is complete and the projects on hold will then be reevaluated.
Belfast has been trying to lure a Wal-Mart to the new big box zone on the city’s west side.
Bob Bahre, the man who bought the entire west side big box zone, plans to visit Belfast in a few weeks to see the land he bought sight-unseen, but nobody involved in Belfast development is sure of what to expect.
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Topics: Zoning Regulations | |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
WAL-MART CONTROVERSY IN POLSON, MT
Wal-Mart has signed contract to buy Napanoch Valley Mall [Times Herald-Record (N.Y.)]
Members of the Polson City Council have given retailer Walmart a two year extension plat approval for its planned Super Center in town.
While everything is in line to start construction, opponents are now working on a appeal process.
The current Walmart sits on the south end of Polson, but company representatives say the store is just not big enough, and they want more space to build on new land just above it.
“I think it’s awful I think it’s going to ruin Polson, it’s just too big in this small town and it’s gonna hurt all of the smaller businesses one way or another” says resident Kitty Starke.
“I don’t have an opinion either way, I was involved in the process, which was lengthy, but there’s a lot of people saying the like the idea, but there’s a lot saying it’s not such a good idea” commented Polson City Attorney James Raymond.
Exactly two years ago this month Walmart’s original proposal was approved to build a Super Center just off of U.S. Highway 93, overlooking the city, and now it appears, the way is clear for the bulldozers to get to work.
But controversy still surrounds the proposal, with opinions about how it will affect the local economy, the aesthetic value and even tourism.
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Topics: Environment | Traffic/Sprawl | Zoning Regulations |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
HEARING PLANNED IN MULDOON, AK
Wal-Mart attracts renewed support for Muldoon store [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)]
Wal-Mart heads into a public hearing early next month on a planned East Anchorage project with a fresh, one-sided vote of support from the Northeast Community Council. But some council members say a company effort to rally supporters of the project to a recent meeting might have tilted the vote.
Skewed or not, the 25-8 vote of the community council backed the company’s latest plan for a Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club at Muldoon and DeBarr roads—a backing the company aggressively sought. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said in an e-mail to reporters after the vote that the company was “very proud” to have the council’s recommendation.
Council members, however, say last week’s meeting included an unusual number of Wal-Mart employees. Further, some voting in favor of the plan regretted that a more elaborate development plan that included additional landscaping and traffic amenities was no longer on the table.
“I didn’t like this plan nearly as much as the one that had been negotiated in the past,” said former council president Peggy Robinson, who was among the 25. “I had the feeling there were others who felt the same way.”
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Topics: Site Fights & Local Ordinances | Traffic/Sprawl |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
WAL-MART SCALES BACK IN CORDOVA, TN
Wal-Mart plans prototype store at Cordova site [Memphis Business Journal (Tenn.)]
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is proposing to bring its newly branded store design to Cordova, potentially the first location for the mega-retailer’s new Supercenter prototype in Tennessee and one of a handful in the country. A new corporate logo will be featured on the facade of the proposed store at Macon and Houston Levee.
The new site plan for the Wal-Mart Supercenter will be presented to the Shelby County Land Use Control Board July 10. It was withdrawn from consideration earlier this year. The store has drawn opposition from neighbors and concerns from the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development.
Now, Wal-Mart planners have reduced the footprint of the store from 267,000 square feet to 151,908 square feet, according to a June 12 application submitted to the Office of Planning and Development. The 26.53-acre site includes five outparcels in addition to the superstore and 765 parking spaces, down from more than 1,000 proposed in late 2007.
The design of the store is a new prototype for the world’s largest retailer. So far, the prototype has been submitted to a handful of municipalities around the country, and the proposed Cordova store could become one of the first in the nation to don the new “look and feel,” says Dennis Alpert, senior manager of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart in Tennessee.
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Topics: Traffic/Sprawl | Comprehensive Plans | |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
WAL-MART UP TO THE VOTERS IN ATASCADERO, CA
Analysis: Voters are in driver’s seat with future of Wal-Mart [San Luis Obispo Tribune (Calif.)]
The fate of Wal-Mart’s proposed big-box store on Atascadero’s north side is in the hands of city voters.
The City Council voted late Tuesday to place the so-called Atascadero Shield Initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot after opponents of Wal-Mart gathered signatures of more than 10 percent of the city’s 15,114 registered voters.
The initiative will not mention Wal-Mart by name. But by limiting the amount of floor space a large store could devote to selling groceries, it would block Wal-Mart’s pending application to build a Supercenter on its property at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real.
The council vote, which came a few minutes before midnight after a tense public hearing lasting more than four hours, does several things:
• It ensures that the current City Council will not have the final say on the project.
• It means that the lively and contentious communitywide debate about Wal-Mart will last at least until November.
• It likely means that, with three seats up for grabs this fall, Wal-Mart will be the key issue in the race for control of the City Council.
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Topics: Economic/Small Business | Site Fights & Local Ordinances | Ballot Measures |
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
Pullman, WA. After Nearly Four Years, Citizens End Legal Challenge to Wal-Mart
On December 3, 2006, Sprawl-Busters updated the story of residents in Pullman, Washington, who were engaged in a marathon legal battle to block a Wal-Mart supercenter in their community. In March of 2006, residents lost an appeal of a city ruling in favor of Wal-Mart before a Hearing Examiner, and took their appeal to Whitman County Superior Court. That court appeal went in Wal-Mart’s favor as well, but the battle continued.
At the end of 2006, The Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development (PARD) announced that it was taking its case against the proposed Pullman Wal-Mart to the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Spokane. PARD legal liaison T.V. Reed stated that “while the appeal will be costly, we have had great support from thousands of folks in the community, and currently have a new membership drive under way. PARD will continue to make the case that a huge supercenter on Bishop Boulevard would drastically impede access to the hospital, be dangerous for pedestrians, and negatively impact the local economy.” PARD argued that the information regarding the traffic impact was inadequate.
The State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) states that any determination of non-significance must be based on adequate information. Second, both the SEPA and the Site Plan require that it be clearly determined that the Wal-Mart Supercenter would not have a negative fiscal impact on the city causing blight. PARD’s appeal argued that the determination made was based on insufficient data as well.
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Topics: Environment | Traffic/Sprawl | Organizing | Zoning Regulations
Posted by Al Norman on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
Lady’s Island, S.C. City Gives Preliminary Approval To Limit Location of Big Box Stores
On June 19, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart had decided not to pave over wetlands in Lady’s Island, South Carolina. Wal-Mart had applied for a permit to build a 195,000 s.f. store, plus two other retail stores, and a fast-food restaurant---all on 26 acres of wooded land.
Lady’s Island lies within the city limits of Beaufort, South Carolina, which boasts of its “Landmark Historic District,” its “horse-drawn carriage” tours, its “unique, fully restored central business district filled with shops and restaurants, all within walking distance of beautiful downtown inns and hotels.” In short, it’s a charming “low country” southern town just minutes from the beaches of Hilton Head. As the city says, “Beaufort has it all!” There are also three Wal-Marts within 20 miles of Beaufort, including a supercenter on Robert Smalls Parkway in Beaufort. The city says its concerned with “the preservation of open space, particularly Beaufort’s waterfront viewshed,” and has adopted an Open Space Master Plan. The City Council has directed staff to identify “those economic sectors that will increase wage levels, provide training in desirable skills, and diversify the economic base of the City.”
In March of 2008, the Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals voted against the proposed second Wal-Mart supercenter. Wal-Mart’s lawyer told the Beaufort Gazette that his client was fighting “an entrenched anti-Wal-Mart sentiment.” “It looks like the odds are stacked against me,” the lawyer admitted.
Wal-Mart complained that this project had begun with meetings with Beaufort officials back in October of 2007, and that the city’s objection to the plan “came out of nowhere.” The executive director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation testified that Wal-Mart was incompatible with Beaufort’s aesthetics. “Show me a Wal-Mart that will fit the architecture of our small town,” Thompson said. “You won’t find it.”
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Topics: | Zoning Regulations
Posted by Al Norman on Friday, June 27, 2008 | Permalink
