Chicago, IL. Big Box Issue Returns

Could aldermen face another big-box fight? [Chicago Sun-Times]

The political hot potato that gave birth to the vetoed big-box minimum-wage ordinance is back in the City Council’s lap: Mayor Daley wants aldermen to vote again before approving Chicago’s second Wal-Mart and first supercenter that sells groceries, an alderman said Wednesday.

Technically, all that’s needed for Wal-Mart to break ground at 83rd and Stewart is an administrative sign-off by Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall.

Politically, it’s another story. Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs informed him Daley is determined not to take the heat alone.

“I’ve been told by people in IGA that they want to do some type of vote. My retort was, what type of vote?” Brookins said.

“It’s passing the buck. The authority and all of the zoning approvals are there. All the commissioner has to do is OK it. Nothing else needs to happen. The consensus among aldermen is that they don’t want to vote. . . . Nobody wants to go through that again.”

Big election issue

Planning and Development Department spokesman Peter Scales said the decision to push for another City Council vote is “news to me.” Scales said the last he heard, Randall was simply “meeting with the developer informally and asking for more information.”

Wal-Mart’s entry into the Chicago market has been mired in controversy in a battle royal with organized labor that gave birth to the big-box ordinance and spilled over into last year’s aldermanic election.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, February 21, 2008

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