Illinois Site Fight: Wal-Mart Proposal Must Go to a Vote

ity says Chatham Wal-Mart requires council vote [Chicago Sun-Times]

The Daley administration has rejected a developer’s request for administrative approval to build Chicago’s second Wal-Mart and first super-center that sells groceries.

The decision by Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall means the City Council may have no choice but to re-live the political donnybrook that gave birth to the vetoed big-box minimum wage ordinance.

“If Wal-Mart and the developer would like to put this thing to a vote, I would be more than willing to start the lobbying. . . . I assume if there was some type of ordinance, they could not deny it,” said Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), whose ward includes the Chatham Marketplace at 83rd and Stewart.

But, Brookins said, “I’m not gonna be out there on a limb if that’s not something the developer or Wal-Mart wants to go through. I would hate to create additional enemies in an exercise in futility.”

Brookins accused Mayor Daley of ducking the issue to avoid alienating unions that spent millions to elect a City Council more independent of the mayor.

“You would think that, given the state of the economy, we would welcome 500 new jobs to Chicago. Instead, we’re pushing ’em away because nobody wants to take the heat from certain unions that still have issues with Wal-Mart,” he said.

Roderick Scott, Wal-Mart’s regional vice president for community affairs, called Randall’s March 14 letter an “incredible impediment” to the company’s efforts to serve a South Side community “that not only wants, but needs our development.”

“In their belief, there was a commitment made for it not to be a Wal-Mart super-center. . . . It’s clearly an issue that is beyond what the standard development practices are for the city,” Scott said.

Scott refused to say whether the nation’s largest retailer was prepared for another City Council showdown. That’s something most aldermen would love to avoid.

Bill Moston, Midwest director of retail investment for Arcon Development, was equally tight-lipped.

“We had hoped that our request would have been approved by the city. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. We’re evaluating our options to go forward,” Moston said.

Wal-Marty’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.

In 2004, a bitterly divided Council handed Wal-Mart a split decision: zoning approval to build its first Chicago store in the West Side’s Austin community and a one-vote defeat in Chatham.

After the vote, the City Council rezoned the South Side site on a promise that Wal-Mart “is not and will not be” part of the Chatham Market development.

Randall could not be reached for comment. His letter cited: the City Council’s May 2004 rejection of the Chatham Wal-Mart; subsequent aldermanic approval of a planned development based on a developer’s “emphatic” promise that Wal-Mart would not be part of the project and a redevelopment agreement that requires the commissioner’s approval of stores with more than 100,000 square feet.

The outcome of another Council vote is far from certain.

When Brookins arranged last year for Wal-Mart to meet with small groups of aldermen, the reaction was what you might expect for an issue that touched off a political firestorm.

Brookins was accused of breaking his word. He countered by saying the no-Wal-Mart promise was made by a developer who has since been replaced.

A Wal-Mart Supercenter that sells groceries would improve access to healthy foods for the 4,600 people who live in the Chatham community, of whom 1,100 are children, according to a study by Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group and obtained by the Sun-Times on Monday.

Though Chatham is served by Chatham Food Center, Food 4 Less and a Jewel-Osco, shoppers would benefit from increased competition and a greater variety of options with a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Gallagher said. Dominick’s and Cub Foods both have closed in the neighborhood.

Grocers benefit, too, because they feed off the increased foot traffic, according to Gallagher’s research, found at wwwmarigallagher.com.

“There’s a potential to strengthen the grocery market in Chatham, which is now on the edge of the food desert in Chicago,” Gallagher said, referring to areas with no mainstream grocery stores or supermarkets.