ANOTHER SETBACK FOR CLOVIS, CA WAL-MART

Judge faults study on Wal-Mart Supercenter [Fresno Bee (Calif.)]

A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in north Clovis is being delayed again after a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled the city did not meet state guidelines in studying water impacts and urban decay.

In a ruling last week, Judge Wayne Ellison said the city of Clovis complied with state guidelines on a host of other issues raised by opponents of the 491,000-square-foot retail center, which includes Wal-Mart and other stores.

But the city needs a revised environmental document that addresses the cumulative effects of urban decay and water availability across a wider area than just Clovis, Ellison ruled.

Ellison will now have to decide whether Clovis can make limited revisions to its environmental report, or will be required to prepare a completely new assessment.

Despite the delays, the project’s developer said the center, at the northeast corner of Herndon and Clovis avenues, will be built.

David Paynter said his company is “committed to the project no matter how long it may take.”

Opponents of the shopping center said the judge’s ruling means the city will have to start a new environmental review from scratch.

“The judge is saying everything you did is wiped out and you are starting over again,” said Steve Herum, who represented the Association for Sensitive and Informed Planning, which opposes the center.

Clovis City Attorney David Wolfe read Ellison’s ruling more narrowly, noting the judge faulted the city on just two points.

Wolfe said he will ask the judge to let the city re-examine only the water and urban decay issues and leave the rest of the environmental study intact.

In 2004, Ellison ordered the city to prepare an environmental report after opponents challenged the project in court. The Clovis City Council certified that environmental report last October, and opponents quickly challenged it in court again.

In both the water and urban decay issues, the judge said the city’s environmental assessment must analyze projects outside Clovis’ city limits.

“Unlike other environmental effects, such as noise and traffic, the evaluation of water supplies may demand consideration of a wide geographic range of water users, to avoid potentially disastrous consequences,” Ellison’s decision said.

The consultant that studied urban decay for the environmental report examined the effect the new center would have on stores within Clovis’ city limits. In one case, a Vons store in Clovis was evaluated for a loss of business, but a Fresno grocery store the same distance away was not analyzed.

The consultant, Ellison said, “offered no practical reasons why those same retailers could not have been included in its market area study.”

In addition to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, the developers have signed up Kohl’s, Petco, Ross, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Dress Barn as tenants in the center.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, August 19, 2008