Ellenville, NY. Wal-Mart Wants This Cute Little Town Of 4,000 People
The village of Ellenville, New York describes itself as a “cute little town,” and “one of the most beautiful, up and coming communities in the area.” This little community in the Catskills has three very big Wal-Mart supercenters within 21 miles, in Monticello, Middletown and Newburgh. The census count in Ellenville in 2006 was 3,926---a loss of 317 people since 1990. It’s doubtful that those 317 people left the village of Ellenville to move closer to a Wal-Mart---but for the people who remain, their cute little town is going to be turned on its head by a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter.
According to the Times Herald-Record, Wal-Mart has signed a contract to buy an existing shopping center called the Napanoch Valley Mall. The potential sale of the 20 acre property was announced by the village Mayor, Jeff Kaplan---who also happens to be the lawyer for the owner of the mall. Wal-Mart has put up $250,000 in an escrow account to hold the $5.5 million property. “There is a signed contract, but there are contingencies that we are finalizing,” the Mayor/Lawyer told the newspaper. “We anticipate resolution shortly.” Some people in the village are reacting as if a retail Elvis had come to town. “Everybody knows who it is, but you don’t really know,” winked Wawarsing Supervisor Edward Jennings. It is the town of Wawarsing which will permit the project, not the village. “They haven’t even been before the Planning Board yet,” Jennings said.
Wal-Mart, as ususal, played a word game by telling the media that the retailer does not “have any announced plans for Napanoch.” The Mayor/Lawyer, who clearly has known about the project for months, if not years, said, “This has been a lengthy process, but there is clearly more activity as of late than there was previously. We anticipate that it will be fast-tracked in the near future.” The Napanoch Mall lost its steam when its two main anchors, Ames and Grand Union, succumbed to competition for the Wal-Mart fleet of stores in the area. Several small business remain at the Mall, but if Wal-Mart builds there, it will be like the killer driving off in the victim’s car.
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Posted by Al Norman on Wednesday, July 16 | 0 comments | Permalink
North Whitehall, PA. Supervisors Take Key Vote This Week On Wal-Mart Superstore
This Wednesday, July 16th, supervisors in North Whitehall township, Pennsylvania will take a big vote on a big problem. On September 25, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that the tiny township of North Whitehall, Pennsylvania--population roughly 2,000-- had a big problem: A Wal-Mart supercenter. North Whitehall already has 7 Wal-Mart stores within 20 miles, including three supercenters, with a supercenter in Whitehall a mere 7 miles away. In its continuing drive to saturate the area, Wal-Mart has proposed a 176,846-s.f. superstore on 32.6 acres at Route 309 and Levans Road.
In early October, 2007, the township supervisors, chaired by Ron Stahley, held an afternoon meeting for residents to express their concerns about the massive Wal-Mart project---which will be the largest retail building in the history of this community. About 20 opponents of the project showed up to voice their concerns over the superstore. North Whitehall describes itself as being ‘’Primarily agricultural in nature…a desirable place to live and continues to do so by retaining its unique blend of residential and rural character.’’
Residents opposed to Wal-Mart formed a group called North Whitehall for Sustainable Development (NWSD). This volunteer organization is dedicated to promoting responsible development that conserves natural resources and ecological balance, while providing for the needs of residents in and around North Whitehall. The organization has been working to prevent the construction of this big box store adjacent to the Schnecksville Fire Company. Residents’ opposition to the project is based on traffic safety; air, water, noise and light pollution; and loss of open space. The Planning Commission began reviewing the plans in September of 2007---ten months ago. The case took a bizarre twist in March of 2008, when Wal-Mart’s public plans suddenly turned private. When the resident’s group went to the township for a copy of Wal-Mart’s filings, the township’s lawyer informed residents that they could not make copies, or remove from the township offices. According to North Whitehall’s attorney, Wal-Mart’s plans were “copyrighted, and it would be up to the developers to decide it they want to provide copies to the public.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, July 15 | 0 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART MOVES FORWARD IN PERRY COUNTY, PA
Perry County inches toward ‘big box’ store [Patriot-News (Pa.)]
Perry County is one step closer to the construction of its first “big box” retail center.
But representatives of the developer, HAMM Equities LLC, of King of Prussia, are not saying what nationally known retailer will occupy the 46-acre site in Howe Twp. near the intersection of routes 332 and 34.
Last week, Howe Twp. supervisors granted preliminary approval to a subdivision plan, known as Buffalo Crossing, that cuts the 46 acres into six lots.
Randy Shearer, an engineer representing the developer, said the development would be anchored by a 25-acre lot where a 200,000-square-foot building would stand.
The plans for the subdivision need final approval from the township, and each building on the site would also need to be approved by the township.
The development would also contain a 60,000-square-foot strip mall and four other parcels for stores.
While HAMM officials are not saying what companies will occupy the site, speculation among local residents is nearly unanimous.
“My guess is, it rhymes with Wal-Mart,” said Walter Roberts of Newport. “There’s not many other things that big it could be.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, July 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
IN FEAR OF LITIGATION, MOON, PA OFFICIALS SURRENDER TO WAL-MART
Injured Moon Township official says Wal-Mart still a priority [Beaver County Times (Pa.)]
Moon Township Supervisor Michael Hopper hasn’t attended the board’s last two public meetings, participating instead by phone, and he’s failed to return numerous phone calls and e-mails from residents in recent weeks.
All while the board was considering one of the most controversial items on its plate in recent years — the potential development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter at the current West Hills Shopping Center site.
The calls and e-mails from residents picked up, both in number and intensity, after Hopper’s vote Thursday approving Wal-Mart’s preliminary development plans, a reversal from the vote he cast a week earlier when the board shot down Wal-Mart’s plans.
Hopper said there’s a reason he’s been a bit incommunicado.
“I was seriously injured in a bad car accident three weeks ago,” Hopper said.
Hopper suffered a broken nose, a broken sternum, a couple of broken ribs and loss of hearing in his right ear in the June 19 wreck in downtown Pittsburgh, where he swerved to miss an oncoming car and crashed into a utility pole.
Hopper said he spent three days at Pittsburgh’s Mercy Hospital after the accident, before going home and ordered to bedrest.
“It’s going to be another few weeks before I’m up and around again,” Hopper said.
Still, Hopper said he’s stayed on top of the Wal-Mart issue.
Explaining his flip-flop vote, Hopper said he had “grave concerns about the potential magnitude of liability we faced.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, July 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
EATON, PA OKS WAL-MART, WITH CONDITIONS
Eaton Twp. planning commission OKs Wal-Mart SuperCenter plan [Citizens Voice (Pa.)]
The township Planning Commission on Thursday recommended the supervisors adopt a plan for a 155,114-square-foot Wal-Mart SuperCenter on Route 29, just south of Tunkhannock.
The supervisors are scheduled to review the plans July 21.
The planning commission recommended approval of the plan for the SuperCenter with conditions, including that a state Department of Transportation Highway occupancy permit is secured and that the store’s parking lot cannot be used for overnight parking, among others.
According to plans, the SuperCenter would be located near Skyhaven Airport and across from the present Wal-Mart store. Separate 1-acre and 2-acre parcels would also be a part of the development.
Wal-Mart is in a purchase agreement to buy the land from Select Sires of Plain City, Ohio.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, July 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
VICTORY IN PENNSVILLE TOWNSHIP, NJ
Wal-Mart plan for P.V. dead [Today’s Sunbeam (N.J.)]
They went head-to-head with a retail giant and won, say environmentalists who claimed a definitive victory over Wal-Mart on Friday.
At stake, a 77-acre tract on the border of the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, slated at one time as the next home for a 280,000-square-foot Wal-Mart super center less than a mile down Route 49 from its existing store here.
Attorneys of Angeloni Development, which sought to purchase the land for the project, sent its official decision in a letter to the Pennsville Planning Board on July 8. The letter was obtained by the Sunbeam Friday.
It was little more than a single sentence that opponents of the super center have been waiting years to hear.
“This is a big victory for us,” said Matt Blake, Delaware Bay Project Manager of the American Littoral Society. “It was the worst display of development in the wrong place.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, July 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Moon, PA. Supervisors Flip-Flop To Vote For Wal-Mart
Township Supervisors in Moon, Pennsylvania took one giant step for mankind---and then they reversed it. The supervisors voted 3-2 against a Wal-Mart preliminary plan for a superstore on July 3rd. But seven days later, at a hastily called meeting on July 10th, they reversed their vote to 4-1 in favor of the plan. According to the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, two of the supervisors who voted against the plan had “misgivings about the legality of their vote.” All Wal-Mart had to do in Moon was threaten to throw its legal weight around, and the supervisors backed down.
Roughly one month ago, on June 12, 2008, Sprawl-Busters visited Moon. We spent an evening helping residents of Moon township, Pennsylvania, get organized, and form the group Moon First, to do battle against a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter. Wal-Mart has applied to build a 148,561 s.f. superstore on the site of an abandoned 1960s-era mall known as the West Hills Shopping Center, located on one of the community’s major intersections, University Boulevard and Brodhead road.
There are also two major housing developments abutting the project on its western side. “We are working toward our No 1 goal,” Supervisor Chairman Tim McLaughlin told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette in June. “To have the best Wal-Mart in Western Pennsylvania.” There’s lots of competition, because Wal-Mart has 15 stores within 25 miles of Moon, including a Wal-Mart three miles away from this site. Township officials developed a plan that would maintain the University Boulevard corridor’s commercial success.
That plan was the Beers School Road Strategic Plan, which included a conceptual design for improvements to University Boulevard to improve traffic flow, enhance pedestrian access and mobility and develop streetscape improvements. The plan recommended implementing urban design changes to the corridor such as landscaping, sidewalks, building facades, public amenities and a gateway. The plan was presented and approved by the Moon Township Board of Supervisors in 2003. The township went further, and created the University Boulevard Overlay district, a tool to implement their strategic plan for the area. Then Wal-Mart entered the picture, and the strategic plan went out the window.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, July 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART A POSSIBILITY IN GREENFIELD, MA
Big box developer gets more time in Greenfield [The Republican (Mass.)]
The Conservation Commission last night agreed to give the developer of a French King Highway department store more time to come up with alternative plans for dealing with wetlands.
Ceruzzi Holdings of Fairfield, Conn., which formed Greenfield Investors Property Development for the store project, will return in September with plans that address the concerns of the commission about wetlands protection.
Commission chairman Alexander J. Haro said the options will be to modify the existing plan to protect the wetland, or come up with another plan, perhaps for a smaller store to avoid any substantial wetland impact.
David Pickart, Ceruzzi’s environmental consultant, asked for the delay. He said it is needed to come up with the environmental answers.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Wednesday, July 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
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