Albany, OR. Developer Eyes Wal-Mart
Developer: Wal-Mart is just one possibility [Albany Democrat Herald]
Wal-Mart is a possibility as the anchor tenant in a proposed Albany shopping center, but so are other retailers, according to a spokesman for the developer.
Flavio Volpe made that comment today. He speaks for SmartCentres, the Canadian company planning to develop a 25-acre shipping center site at the southwest corner of Santiam Highway and Goldfish Farm Road.
A preliminary site plan shows the center with one 190,000-square-foot anchor store and four smaller ones, according to the city planners who met with the applicants last Wednesday.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, September 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Bonita Springs, FL. Staff Recommends Against Wal-Mart Superstore
On December 12, 1999, Sprawl-Busters reported that residents of Bonita Springs, Florida had hammered Home Depot right where it hurts. The world’s largest home improvement chain did not get the desired zoning variance they sought to boost their existing store from 99,999 s.f. to 149,500 s.f. The Lee County commissioners voted 5-0 to reject the variance. Now its Wal-Mart’s turn to feel the heat. The Bonita Daily News reports this week that the Community Development office in Bonita Springs has rejected Wal-Mart’s plans to put a superstore just off Interstate 75. The superstore is part of a larger, 395,000 s.f. retail footprint being proposed by The Roberts Group. Unfortunately for The Roberts Group, the 68 acre parcel they chose is not zoned for commercial use, so the developer had to ask for a rezoning. Community Development staff choked over the level of traffic the huge project would generate along Bonita Beach Road.
“It is going to take a combined effort from the state, the county, the city and the developers to come up with the funding to improve that Bonita Beach Road/I-75 intersection so the development can be allowed,” Mayor Jay Arend told the Daily News. But Wal-Mart’s plan is far from dead. The City Council gets the final say on this project, and in addition to the staff report, the city’s Zoning Advisory Board will get to submit a recommendation as well. Wal-Mart’s traffic engineer will attempt to rebut the city staff report, and show that traffic will improve through the addition of 12,000 to 14,000 new car trips per day. “I’m becoming very skeptical of the numbers we are getting from these developers,” one Councilman told the newspaper. “Traffic is a major concern for me, and I plan to ask them specific questions on how they will help fix the problems.” But a new Florida law may help developers overcome a bad traffic jam. The law says that if the developer is willing to help pay for improvements to the traffic network, the project should not be denied. “If they are working on fixing it, then we can’t deny them,” the Bonita Springs City Attorney said. City staff is suggesting that The Roberts Group be required to pay part of the cost of upgrading 4 roadways: Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Grande Drive, the I-75 interchange and Trade Way Drive.
Wal-Mart would also be asked to pay for realigning the Bonita Beach Road/Bonita Grande Drive intersection.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, September 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Concord, CA. Developer Self-Destructs Wal-Mart Project--For Now
On April 24, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that a Wal-Mart supercenter project in Concord, California, called the Jones Ranch Project, was floundering. Concord is 29 miles east of San Francisco, has roughly 130,000 residents. It’s the largest city in Contra Costa County. The City Council in March argued that the Environmental Impact Report did not address transportation and circulation, parking, public safety, solid waste generation, storm water and urban decay. The Mayor of Concord, Mark Peterson, voted for Wal-Mart, but he was outnumbered by 3 councilors against the plan. The city’s planning staff prepared a resolution with findings of fact to support a rejection of the EIR, recommending the Council vote formally to deny the project. Nearly five months of controversy later, the developer has fallen on his own sword. That makes three projects that Wal-Mart has bungled in Contra Costa County: Antioch, Hercules, and now Concord. The developer, Winton Jones Development, submitted the 28-acre Jones Ranch shopping center on Arnold Industrial Way, which included a Wal-Mart and a Lowe’s. Jones promised that the project would create 650 new jobs---a gross figure, not a net figure. Two days ago, Jones sent a letter to City Hall which read, “Winton Jones Development Co. respectfully withdraws its application without prejudice.”
Jones is leaving the door wide open to apply again. The Jones withdrawal was a dramatic last minute bail out, because the City Council was slated to discuss the project the same evening. Instead of discussing the project, the City Council simply read the letter out loud to the crowded hearing room, and moved on to the next item on their agenda. The citizen’s group that had organized against the store, No More on 4, was prepared to fight the retailer in court. “The quality of life impacts we feel in North Concord need to be considered first, and these kinds of big-box discount stores do not have a track record of serving communities well,” said Gregg Davidson, chairman of the group, according to the Contra Costa Times. “We are pleased that the Jones Family had the courage to end this controversy by withdrawing the current Wal-Mart project from consideration.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, September 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Chesapeake, VA. Wal-Mart Fires Worker Over Photos of Managers
At Wal-Mart, one of the key personnel mantras is “respect for the individual.” One Wal-Mart worker once told me, “I’m sure Wal-Mart respects the individual---I just never met that individual.” Any manager will tell you that you can judge a company by how it treats its front line workers.
Christine Knowels was a loyal Wal-Mart worker who lost her job, and wanted it back. She was hired by Wal-Mart in August of 2000, and worked for roughly seven years-—all at the Wal-Mart supercenter #1841 in Chesapeake, Virginia. She was abruptly fired for “gross misconduct” , with a “mandatory no rehire” finding. According to her store manager, “Christine displayed 13 potentially offensive pictures of the management team in the back hallway while on the clock. Christine used/took company resources (digital media/or photo copies off of company property without permission.” When Knowels went to file for unemployment compensation, the Virginia Employment Commission wrote up her case as follows: “Christine was discharged from her position with Wal-Mart for displaying photos of the management team that were considered to be potentially offensive.
Christine reported that she had been told by the employee who was taking down the photos that she could have them. Christine used a program on her computer to make funny pictures and brought the altered pictures back to work the following day. Christine said she had done such pictures in the past and co-workers thought it was good for morale. Christine said no one had complained about them in the past and while she was putting up the pictures on the board a co-manager saw them and laughed. When Christine was let go she was asked if she had permission to take the pictures and told [the store manager] that [R] who was removing the pictures had told her it was ok to do with them what she wanted. Christine did not feel the pictures were offensive, and did not mean for them to be taken that way.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, September 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Lihu’e, HI. Wal-Mart Calls it Quits
Wal-Mart supercenter plans stall [Kauai Garden Island News]
The Kaua‘i County Planning Commission has denied Wal-Mart’s request to expand its Lihu‘e store into Hawai‘i’s first supercenter.
Wal-Mart says its expansion will provide a wider variety of foods and goods and at lower prices than are available on Kaua‘i today.
During a meeting at the Lihu’e Civic Center Tuesday, planning commissioners agreed with the county Planning Department’s conclusion that Wal-Mart had yet to meet all the conditions to expand its store from 120,000 to at least 185,000 square feet.
Those conditions include requiring a traffic study to outline the impact of any expanded Wal-Mart store on neighborhoods in Lihu‘e.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
Duluth, GA. Citizens Challenge Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart opponents challenge planning rulings [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Residents fighting a proposed Wal-Mart in Duluth filed an appeal Wednesday with the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, said Chris Collins, senior planner in the city’s planning & development office.
Smart Growth Gwinnett, the group that sprang up to oppose the planned 27-acre development, and gathered 3,000 signatures of online support is challenging two rulings made by Shelley Stiebling, the city’s interim director of planning and development.
One ruling involved the pitch of the store’s roof. Duluth’s building ordinance requires commercial structures to have pitched roofs. Wal-Mart suggested an alternative that wouldn’t require as extreme a pitch.
The other involved building materials, Collins said. The city requires most retail stores to have masonry brick, but Wal-Mart wanted to use a faux brick.
Stiebling approved both changes.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
Waukesha, WI. That Building Is Ug-ly
Wal-Mart’s exterior snags plan approval [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
The proposed south side Wal-Mart Supercenter cleared two hurdles Wednesday but stumbled over its proposed exterior appearance submitted to the Plan Commission for preliminary approval.
A battery of Wal-Mart officials and hired architects were given a big box full of advice on improving the appearance and layout of the building and its 32-acre site.
Commissioners recommended to the Common Council a zoning change be made from manufacturing to commercial. And it gave preliminary approval to the site plan.
But the plain red block that dominated the largely windowless structure fails to adhere with the city’s architectural design guidelines, City Planner Mike Hoeft said. The commission responded by giving the architecture only “conceptual approval.”
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
Concord, CA. Developer Withdraws Plans
Concord Wal-Mart plans fall through [Contra Costa Times (Calif.)]
After months of emotional debate and hand-wringing over whether the city should allow a 24-hour Wal-Mart store in North Concord, the developer has pulled the plug on the plan.
This is the retail giant’s third failure this year in Contra Costa County—Antioch rejected a Wal-Mart expansion earlier this year, and Hercules is using eminent domain to stop the store.The Winton Jones Development Co., which proposed the 28-acre Jones Ranch shopping center along Arnold Industrial Way, pulled the project by sending a letter to City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.
“Winton Jones Development Co. respectfully withdraws its application,” reads the four-line letter.
However, the company did ask that the application be withdrawn “without prejudice,” meaning the company could resubmit this or another plan in the future.
The City Council had planned to debate the merits of the shopping center, which also would have included a Lowe’s home improvement store and an In-N-Out Burger, on Tuesday night. But after reading the letter aloud to the crowded room, the council deemed the issue moot and said nothing about the project.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
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