IOWA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART SITE APPROVED IN SHENANDOAH
Final plat OK’d for new Wal-Mart [Valley News Today (Iowa)]
The Shenandoah City Council at Tuesday’s meeting approved a preliminary and final plat for the new Wal-Mart Supercenter.
The Supercenter, to be located on property formerly owned by Valley Farms, sits off Highway 59 to the east behind the Shenandoah Elks Lodge and O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Shenandoah’s Planning and Zoning commission approved of the plat at an earlier meeting on Tuesday.
Jason Femrite, a project engineer with Bolton & Menk in Makato, Minn., but representing Wal-Mart, was at the meeting with the plat.
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Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
IOWA SITE FIGHT: ONLY ONE VOTE REMAINS IN IOWA CITY
Smoking ban OK’d and Super Wal-Mart a step closer [The Daily Iowan (Iowa)]
No more smoking in the Pedestrian Mall near the playground. And a Super Wal-Mart is one vote away from fruition.
Iowa City city councilors handled both measures on Tuesday night, hearing relatively little discussion - the smoking issue was expedited in fewer than five minutes.
The measure expands the statewide ban’s reach to include the areas outside entertainment venues, sporting events, and parking ramps.
Wal-Mart opponents left disgruntled after the councilors voted in favor of allowing the southern Iowa City Wal-Mart to become a Super Wal-Mart.
Also see: Iowa City, IA. City Officials Have One More Vote To Approve Wal-Mart [Battle-Mart Blog]
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Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Iowa City, IA. City Officials Have One More Vote To Approve Wal-Mart
It’s the third vote that finally counts. City officials in Iowa City, Iowa have one chance left to deny a wasteful Wal-Mart proposal that will kill an existing discount store, just to build a bigger one.
On June 21, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that local residents in Iowa City, Iowa were being saturated with flood waters, and saturated with big box stores. Iowa City already has a 110,000 s.f. Wal-Mart discount store on Highway 1 West. The city also has a 122,000 s.f. Target at the Coral Ridge Mall, and a 128,000 s.f. Dillards. They have a 97,000 s.f. Kmart as well. There’s also a Wal-Mart supercenter less than 5 miles away in Coralville, Iowa.
There are three Wal-Mart supercenters within 25 miles of Iowa City---so the city’s 63,000 population has easy access to cheap Chinese imports within a short drive. Wal-Mart’s plan is tear down its current store, Staples and an abandoned Cub Foods to build the new supercenter. The Cub store was closed because of competition from Wal-Mart. The Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission in late June delayed for a second time the processing of a Wal-Mart supercenter proposal. According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, a number of Commissioners just don’t like the looks of the proposed 189,000 s.f. Wal-Mart. “It seems like you didn’t look at the code when you planned this—the big-box standards,” the commission’s chairwoman told the retailer. “We’re not even close to meeting the minimum on these things.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
ILLINOIS SITE FIGHT: BATAVIA EXPANSION TAKES STEP FORWARD
Dunkin’ Donuts to open store in Batavia [Kane County Chronicle (Ill.)]
BATAVIA – By early next year, residents will be able to drive up to Dunkin’ Donuts and grab something sweet to eat.
Dunkin’ Donuts proposes to open a store in the former Schlotzsky’s sandwich shop at 2002 W. Wilson St. Schlotzsky’s has been closed for more than two years.
It would be the first Dunkin’ Donuts in Batavia.
“It’s definitely a good fit for Randall Road and Batavia,” Batavia planner Drew Rackow said. “I’ve heard from a lot of people who are happy to hear they are coming to town.”
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
WISCONSIN SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART PLAYING CHICKEN, LOOKING FOR HANDOUTS IN SHELL LAKE
Wal-Mart needs help from city, county to continue [Washburn County Register (WI)]
SHELL LAKE – A Spooner Wal-Mart may be at a standstill, after the Washburn County Executive Committee announced that the company said the project was “in trouble” due to budget issues.
The committee met Monday, Sept. 8, in the Elliott Building, Shell Lake, to discuss the matter. Chair Micheal Bobin said four Wal-Mart representatives met with the county, city of Spooner and the Department of Transportation last week. Bobin said the representatives told those present that originally $2 million of infrastructure improvements for the Spooner project were slated. Now, he said, the company told him the costs have escalated, raising the total to around $4 million. If the cost can’t be brought back down to around $3 million, Bobin said, the store may not come to Spooner.
“They threatened to cancel the project,” Bobin said.
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
IOWA SITE FIGHT: MORE ON WAL-MART IN IOWA CITY
Smoking ban OK’d and Super Wal-Mart a step closer [Daily Iowan]
No more smoking in the Pedestrian Mall near the playground. And a Super Wal-Mart is one vote away from fruition.
Iowa City city councilors handled both measures on Tuesday night, hearing relatively little discussion - the smoking issue was expedited in fewer than five minutes.
The measure expands the statewide ban’s reach to include the areas outside entertainment venues, sporting events, and parking ramps.
Wal-Mart opponents left disgruntled after the councilors voted in favor of allowing the southern Iowa City Wal-Mart to become a Super Wal-Mart.
The vote was the second of three-successive considerations. If the council approves the zoning amendment at its next formal session, Sept. 23, Wal-Mart will be allowed to expand.
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Legal Blog: EEOC lawsuit alleges disability discrimination against Wal-Mart
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Illinois for violating employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit was brought yesterday on behalf of Barbara Hacker, a Wal-Mart greeter who suffers from epilepsy. Click here for a copy of the complaint.
The EEOC is the federal enforcing agency for the employment provisions of the ADA, and this is NOT the Commission’s first run-in with Wal-Mart. In fact, Wal-Mart’s history with the EEOC is littered with lawsuits, settlements, and broken promises to eliminate barriers for applicants and employees with disabilities. A report by Human Rights Watch found that between 1992 (when the ADA went in to effect) and 2002, sixteen suits had been filed by the Commission against Wal-Mart for violating Title I of the ADA, the most filed against any single corporation. Several more cases have been filed since then, two of which were settled earlier this year. (For more info on these, click here and here.)
As for Barbara Hacker, she informed her supervisors when she was hired about her epilepsy. She asked for nothing more than the reasonable accommodation of being allowed to sit for a couple minutes in a quiet place while she recovered from seizures. For a time she was accommodated, but ultimately she was fired after having a seizure in a back room off the sales floor at the Rockford Wal-Mart. According to EEOC attorney Aaron Decamp:
[T]he lawsuit was filed after Hacker filed a complaint with the EEOC in late 2006, after she was fired. EEOC investigators determined the claim had merit, and attorneys tried to reach a settlement with Wal-Mart before the suit was filed.
It should be noted that being the top lawsuit target of the ADA enforcement agency is probably not a good thing. Resources do not allow the EEOC to prosecute every case, which is why the Commission uses “strategic and vigorous” litigation as an enforcement tool.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission files suit against Wal-Mart [Rockford Register Star]
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, September 10 | 2 comments | Permalink
IOWA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART MOVES FORWARD
Wal-Mart passes 2nd hurdle [Iowa City Press-Citizen]
The Iowa City Council appears poised to put a final stamp of approval on Wal-Mart’s plans to build a 190,000-square-foot supercenter, as they approved a second consideration of the proposal Tuesday night.
The vote was 6-1 with Councilor Mike Wright dissenting.
The council has heard a considerable amount of disapproval and support of the proposal from community members and others.
International Brother-hood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa in a letter to the council chided them for supporting the proposal, citing Wal-Mart’s “policies that discriminate against its workers, including female and minority employees.”
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Posted by Luke West on Wednesday, September 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
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