DEL NORTE, CA HEARING DATE SET ON APPEAL

Hearing set on appeal of Wal-Mart expansion [Daily Triplicate (Calif.)]

An appeal of Planning Commission approval of Wal-Mart expansion will be the subject of a public hearing before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Ron Cole, on behalf of the Crescent City Heritage Coalition, appealed the Planning Commission’s June 4 decision to adopt an Environmental Impact Report for Wal-Mart’s expansion to a Supercenter.

The county planning department has recommended that the board deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.

In Cole’s appeal letter, he stated the public brought up several issues, such as environmental concerns, traffic, global warming and urban decay, that were not fully addressed in the EIR.

“The level of detail in an EIR’s analysis must correspond to an impact’s severity and likelihood of occurrence,” Cole wrote.

He requested that supervisors decertify the EIR and send it back to the Planning Commission to have these issues further studied.

“Specifically, the EIR needs to trace cause and effect through anticipated economic and/or social changes from the Project to physical changes in the environment,” Cole wrote.

He also stated that because possible changes in the environment from the expansion were not adequately addressed in the EIR, it is not in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

Michael Brandman Associates compiled the EIR for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and provided a rebuttal to Cole’s appeal and other comments from Friends of Del Norte and local residents. This states that these issues were adequately addressed in the EIR and is accordance with CEQA.

Cole wrote that a significant effect of the Supercenter would be urban decay from the closures of existing grocery stores and pharmacies.

Cole said five supermarkets in the county are competing for about $50 million a year in sales and that the Supercenter would take about $16 million in sales away from the other grocery stores.

In the rebuttal, Wal-Mart’s representatives state that in 2009, Wal-Mart would capture almost $7 million in retail sales that are currently occurring outside of the county.

They said the expansion was “not likely to have any significant impacts leading to vacancies of any of these stores.”

Cole also said the EIR did not address how water runoff from the Supercenter would affect wildlife in a nearby tributary of Elk Creek.

This is rebuked in the rebuttal, which claimed that “the Draft EIR did evaluate long-term water quality impacts and proposed mitigation to address such impacts.”

The rebuttal stated that the appeal is based more on opinions than fact, which are not reasons to decertify the EIR.

If the appeal is denied, the Wal-Mart that was built in 1992 will be expanded by almost 82,000 square feet to a total of almost 165,000. The Supercenter would have a grocery section, as well as expanded general merchandise selection.

Also at the June 4 planning commission meeting, commissioners looked at the proposed design for the Supercenter. They asked the architect to do a slight redesign with more wood and stonework. On Wednesday, the Planning Commission approved the new design.

Posted by Tony Calero on Monday, August 11, 2008

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