Lancaster, MA: Why Don’t Wal-Mart Execs Live Near Superstores?
A local residents’ group in Lancaster, Massachusetts that has been battling Wal-Mart for more than a year, is asking why Wal-Mart executives don’t live anywhere near the 24 hour supercenters they push onto others?
Area residents upset by the prospect of a huge, 24 hour retail supercenter on Old Union Turnpike in Lancaster, applauded town selectmen recently for agreeing to ask Wal-Mart to place an evening curfew on the proposed store---but called Wal-Mart’s immediate rejection of the idea “corporate hypocrisy as big as their superstores.”
They say Wal-Mart officials don’t live with Wal-Marts in their backyard. “Wal-Mart has a double-standard,” explained Our Lancaster First member Paul Bermingham. “Their executives don’t live with 24 hour superstores on their block---but they want us to.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, August 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
Greenfield, MA. Wal-Mart Developer Pulls Back Plans—For Now
A Connecticut developer, Louis J. Ceruzzi of Fairfield, has suddenly withdrawn his Notice of Intent (NOI) to build a 160,000 s.f. Wal-Mart in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on a site just across the street from where the giant retailer was defeated in 1993. That confrontation led to the founding of Sprawl-Busters. Fourteen years later, Wal-Mart is back---although the company has publicly made no commitment to the project. The NOI is a step in the process of getting approval for a project under the state’s Wetlands Protection Act. The developer must get local officials to approve their building plans, and to show minimal impact on the site’s more than 6 wetland areas. The problem for this project is that one of the wetlands lies where the developer wants to put the parking lot for the huge project—which is twice the size of any retail store in the town’s history. The town of Greenfield has a local wetlands by law that makes replication possible only as a last resort, putting the project in a legal swamp. To build the Wal-Mart, wetland 4 must be paved over, and replicated elsewhere on the site. But since replication is not allowed, the developer must try to get the town to ignore its own bylaw.
That may be easy to do, since the Conservation Commission is appointed by the Mayor, and the Mayor of Greenfield, the project’s biggest supporter, recently fired the chair of the Commission to clear the way for her own appointees. But the withdrawal yesterday of the NOI was simply a matter of maneuvering into position by the developer, because the new members appointed by the Mayor cannot vote on the project under state law, because they are arriving on the board in the middle of the case. When the Mayor canned the chair of the Commission, another member quit, leaving only 3 people in the Commission. The developer needed all three remaining votes for a NOI approval. To better the odds, and let the Mayor’s appointments start at the beginning, the developer simply pulled his plans “without prejudice,” and is expected to refile soon, ‘’These people will be back,” said Sprawl-Buster’s founder Al Norman. ‘’This is just a strategy the developer is using to get around a challenge it knew it would lose.’’ A couple of weeks ago, Norman requested in writing that the two newest members of the five-member commission excuse themselves from any discussions or votes concerning the project. The commission’s own rules and regulations state an ongoing issue should only be heard by members who have attended all portions of a wetlands hearing. He threatened that if the two new members voted, their votes would be contested. “A notice of intent requires three positive votes to be accepted,’’ said Norman. ‘’With only three original members sitting on the commission, I think everyone knew they wouldn’t get three positive votes and the issue would be dead.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, August 07 | 0 comments | Permalink
PENNSYLVANIA SITE FIGHT: SUSPICION OVER STABILIZATION PLAN
Wal-Mart reps unveil plans for stabilization [Sewickley (Penn.) Herald]
Al Norman has been fighting urban sprawl since Wal-Mart attempted to put a store in his small town in northern Massachusetts in 1993.
Residents of Greenfield, Mass., ultimately voted against changing zoning laws to allow a supercenter to move in. Now Norman wants other communities to be able to do the same.
“I felt other communities should have help going up against the wealthy developers and town officials,” said Norman, 60, speaking from his cell phone on a Boston street corner.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Friday, August 03 | 0 comments | Permalink
NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: CITIZENS SAYING NO TO WAL-MART
Residents protest Wal-Mart supercenter [The Buffalo News]
Since a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter was first announced in Orchard Park, residents have been coming to Town Board meetings to voice their opposition.
On Wednesday, they came in organized and in force. About 40 people raised their hands when asked if they were there to oppose the Wal- Mart proposed for Milestrip Road, across from the Quaker Crossing development.
In addition, the newly organized group Control Orchard Park Sprawl, or COPS, presented petitions with 500 signatures urging the Town Board to do what it can to stop the project.
“These are your constituents,” said Jennifer Winspear, who presented the petitions.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Thursday, August 02 | 0 comments | Permalink
MASSACHUSETTS SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART WON’T LIMIT HOURS
Wal-Mart does not plan to limit store hours [Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and Gazette]
LANCASTER— Wal-Mart will not change its plan to have its proposed Supercenter off Old Union Turnpike be open 24 hours a day, in spite of a request from town officials and residents to limit the hours.
Last week, Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco sent a letter to James M. Burgoyne, a Lancaster lawyer representing Wal-Mart, asking that store hours be 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
In an e-mail yesterday, Wal-Mart spokesman Christopher N. Buchanan said Wal-Mart will not agree to limited hours.
“A 24-hour Wal-Mart will be continuously monitored by cameras and on-site managerial staff during day and night hours of operation,” Mr. Buchanan said in the e-mail.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Thursday, August 02 | 0 comments | Permalink
PENNSYLVANIA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART TO STABILIZE LANDSLIDE-PRONE CONSTRUCTION SITE
PITTSBURGH --Wal-Mart will stabilize a hilltop construction site that caused a major landslide last year, whether or not it ever builds a store there, a company spokesman said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Jim Davis told about 150 Kilbuck Township residents Tuesday night that the Arkansas-based retail chain will not leave the site along Route 65 until the ground stops sliding from the hilltop construction site. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection hosted the public meeting to address residents’ concerns.
“I am committing to you here tonight that Wal-Mart will do everything it can to remediate that site,” Davis said.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Wednesday, August 01 | 0 comments | Permalink
Pennsylvania: Landslide Plan To Be Revealed Today
Wal-Mart to present plan for Kilbuck Twp. property [KDKA-2 Pittsburgh]
(KDKA) KILBUCK TWP. The public will get a chance today to see Wal-Mart’s plan to stabilize a hillside in Kilbuck Township that has been prone to landslides.
Wal-Mart hoped to anchor a retail development on the site, overlooking Route 65, but those plans were put on hold following a massive landslide last September that closed Ohio River Boulevard and even train traffic for days.
The DEP says the land is still shifting and ordered all worked stopped until the site is stabilized.
The state will hold a public hearing tonight at six at Avonworth High School to discuss Wal-Mart’s plan.
Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, July 31 | 0 comments | Permalink
New York Site Fight: Wal-Mart Meeting Scheduled
Meeting tonight on proposed Greece Wal-Mart [Rochester Democrat and Chronicle]
(July 31, 2007) — A meeting on “Life After Wal-Mart” will be held at 7 tonight at Our Lady of Mercy Church, 36 Armstrong Road.
The meeting will focus on a Wal-Mart supercenter that has been proposed for Northgate Plaza. Organizers of the event — Citizens for Responsible Development of Dewey Avenue — are exploring other options for the plaza. Developers want to build 146,000-square-foot Wal-Mart, a proposal that has galvanized both supporters and detractors in the community.
The town’s planning board and zoning board of appeals already have held two joint meetings to discuss the issue with developers. A third such meeting is scheduled for Aug. 14, at the Community and Senior Center on the Town Hall campus on Vince Tofany Boulevard.
Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, July 31 | 10 comments | Permalink
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