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Examples & Resources

• Maryland Fair Share Health Care Act
• Development Agreements Authorized, Washington State law. (1995)
• Washington State, Comprehensive Plans, Mandatory Elements, (1995)
• Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act
• Vermont’s Land Use and Development Law, ACT 250 (1970)
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The kind of zoning policy you want at the local level can be reinforced at the state level. To get state legislation passed, you need to approach your State Representative and State Senator. If you have written up a sample law that you want passed, the lawmakers can help you refine it. State laws regarding large commercial developments cover a wide scope of issues including: community impact reports, caps on building size, regulating wage and health insurance, regional planning, sales tax sharing, etc… Some state laws, like Vermont’s Act 250, or the New York and California Environmental Quality Review Act, have been around for thirty years. There may be sections of these laws that you can insert into your state’s existing zoning law. Caution: State laws are usually not passed quickly, unless there is strong political support in the state legislature.

Comprehensive Plans

Requires local governments to amend their comp plans to satisfy new state land use goals.

Concurrency

Providing services concurrent with the impacts of development is necessary to assure that the quality of life in a community is maintained and enhanced. In some states, however, local governments may add to its concurrency requirement so long as they follows state guidelines.

Environmental Protection

Many states have some form of environmental review for large retail projects. These statutes can also help slow down a project, requiring more environmental reviews and decision-making. Check with your state’s environmental protection office to see what laws and regulations are already in effect.

Growth Management

There are a number of state laws that specifically address the issue of managing the rate of growth within a state. Check with your State Senator or State Representative to see what kind of growth management laws your state already has on the books.

Health Benefits & Wages

In a number of communities, local groups are pushing for big box retailers, including Wal-Mart, to provide decent wages and health insurance for their workers. Because Wal- Mart does not provide those wages and benefits now, any law that requires better compensation and health care for its workers is a disincentive for locating in that city, town or state. In some of the larger metro areas, ordinances are being passed by lawmakers who challenge Wal-Mart to be a better corporate citizen, and pay its “associates” better instead of allowing enormous wealth to float to the very top of the corporate organization.

Economic Impact

Economic impact reports can be written not just for local communities, but for entire states. The Vermont Act 250 law is an early example of a statewide ordinance that requires economic impact reports.

Statewide Size Caps

Just as size caps can be applied locally, or in a county, they can also be applied statewide. This is harder to do, because you need to consent of the state legislature and the Governor of your state. Retail lobbyists will do their best to stop such legislation.

Tax Laws

One of the primary reasons local officials are driven to approve Wal-Mart superstores is the hope of tax revenues and broadening of the local tax base. Communities where property taxes are limited by state law, are especially attracted by the promise of sale tax revenues. But in many states where only property taxes remain at the local level, officials still believe mistakenly that big box stores will help pay municipal bills. Legislation is designed to blunt the drive for more and more retail boxes by forcing communities to share in revenue growth, or plan regionally for such growth, in order to discourage one town from “stealing” revenues from a neighboring town by trying to build a “bigger and better” big box development.