New York, NY. State Teachers Urge CREF To Strengthen Oversight Of Wal-Mart

On February 19, 2006, Sprawl-Busters noted that TIAA CREF, the teacher’s pension fund, is the 15th. largest institutional investor in Wal-Mart, holding 20.5 million shares, worth $945.2 million. The TIAA CREF Trust Company owns another 126,680 shares, worth another $5.8 million. Last week, the New York State Union of Teachers (NYSUT) sent a warning shot across the bow of TIAA-CREF. On April 27th, the NYSUT passed a resolution titled “Urging TIAA-CREF to Continue Developing Shareholder Activism In Support Of Labor Rights In the United States and Abroad.” The resolution was originally submitted by the Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York (CUNY). Excerpts from the Resolution are as follows:

“Whereas, NYSUT has been historically committed to the defense of human, civil and labor rights as well as the promotion of social justice both at home and abroad; and Whereas, NYSUT members in higher education generally have the option of selecting TIAA-CREF as their retirement plan, and the decision, made within the first month of full-time employment, is irrevocable; and Whereas, NYSUT has continuously demonstrated its opposition to low-wage, non-unionized labor; and Whereas, NYSUT has consistently informed its members and the public at-large regarding the unfair labor practices of many corporations currently included in TIAA-CREF’s stock portfolio (e.g. Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Nike and others) and whose Third World suppliers routinely ignore workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain; and Whereas, a significant number of NYSUT’s members in higher education have their pensions invested in TIAA-CREF; and…Whereas, TIAA-CREF prides itself on being sensitive to the concerns which investors express about socially responsible investment policies; and claims to endorse and engage in corporate accountability; and Whereas, TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Account…does not exclude corporations that insufficiently promote labor rights both at home and abroad; therefore be it Resolved, that NYSUT recognizes that its members who participate in TIAA-CREF should be offered the option of socially conscious investments that include options that screen for companies’ labor policies as well as other social criteria; and Resolved, that NYSUT on behalf of its membership encourages TIAA-CREF’s directors and trustees to substantially strengthen their corporate oversight of companies in which it invests; and be it further, Resolved, that NYSUT encourages TIAA-CREF’s new office of Social and Community Investing to refine its Social Choice Account so that it contains an explicit, clearly monitored and widely publicized labor rights screen that rules out the inclusion of companies, both in the United States and abroad, that conduct anti-union intimidation campaigns, refuse to bargain collectively, do not pay a living wage and don’t offer minimal health and retirement benefits; and be it further Resolved, that NYSUT encourage TIAA-CREF’s office of Social and Community Investing to offer new options that include companies with strong records in workers’ rights, community development and environmental issues; and be it further Resolved, that NYSUT communicate its interest in a socially conscious investment policy that includes labor screening to the TIAA-CREF President and Chief Executive Officer, the Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer, the Head of Corporate Governance, the Director and Managing Director of Social and Community Investing and the Board of Trustees and ask for a response within three months of this NYSUT convention.”

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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, May 07 | 0 comments | Permalink

Massachusetts Rejects Study for Amherst SuperCenter

State rejects Wal-Mart’s environmental impact report [Amherst (Mass.) Bulletin]

The state has rejected a draft environmental impact report related to the proposed 212,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter at Hampshire Mall. The ruling could delay the project a year, an opponent says.

The applicant, Pyramid Mall of Hadley LLC, must now submit a supplemental draft environmental impact report, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The department has determined the draft does not comply with the Massachusetts Environment Policy Act.

An official with Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation with projected 2007 revenues of $351 billion, said the setback will not impede plans for a Supercenter.

Spokesman Christopher N. Buchanan said any speculation as to how the rejection will alter the company’s timetable is premature, and said Wal-Mart remains committed to expanding its Hadley store.

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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, May 07 | 0 comments | Permalink

Freetown, MA. Rare Turtles, Fly Ash Part of Wal-Mart Plan

Wal-Mart is so desperate for large parcels of land in Massachusetts, that it is willing to locate on top of a former coal ash landfill, with rare turtle habitat, and millions of dollars of needed traffic improvements. Developer K.R. Rezendes has proposed a Fly Ash Landfill Redevelopment on 81.38 acres in Freetown, Massachusetts that has local residents up in arms. On April 13, 2007, the Secretary of the Environmental Affairs told the developer, “I am requiring… additional information pertaining to traffic, wetlands, rare species, and mitigation. The project site is the location of the former K.R. Rezendes, Inc. coal fly ash landfill, which operated until 2002, when it ceased accepting and disposing of coal ash. 80% of the landfill has been capped, and the remaining 20% uncapped landfill will be filled over as part of the “Payne’s Crossing” project. This huge retail project will create 40 acres of impervious surface area. It also contains nearly 10 acres of bordering vegetated wetlands, and nesting habitat for the Diamondback Terrapin, a state protected threatened species. The project’s stormwater plan may result in direct impacts to nesting habitat of the turtle, and result in a “take” of state listed rare species. The project will convey 13.1 million gallons per year of sewage through the town’s sewer system. In Phase I the fly ash landfill will be closed, plus construction of a 170,000 s.f. home improvement store, a 217,000 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter, and 1,600 parking spaces. In phase II, 95,700 sf of retail space to be located in five separate retail buildings, plus another 380 parking spaces. More than 482,000 s.f. of stores will be built in total. This will generate more than 25,100 car trips on a Saturday. The parking lot has 483 more spaces than required in Freetown’s zoning code. MassHighway has indicated that Payne’s Crossing’s traffic will have significant impacts on operations along the Route 79 and Route 24. The project’s traffic mitigation plans “are inadequate to accommodate the potential traffic impacts (and) will result in the development of vehicle queues that will extend beyond available queue storage and will potentially block traffic attempting to enter the Route 24 northbound and southbound ramps,” Mass Highway said.

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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, May 07 | 0 comments | Permalink

Birmingham, AL. Wal-Mart Offers City $1 Million “Sweetener”

Wal-Mart has gone from asking for a public handout, to passing money out in Alabama. The Birmingham News reports this week that Wal-Mart has offered $4.6 million for land in the Titusville neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama, to build a Supercenter-—and part of that price tag is a nice, little deal-sweetener from Wal-Mart. The Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority’s board reviewed a draft agreement with Wal-Mart yesterday, and the group has indicated its initial support for the offer. The Board’s Chairman told The News that the project has been contentious, but he thinks it is more popular now than when first proposed. The Authority owns the 27 acres that Wal-Mart wants. The city of Birmingham and Jefferson County bought the land, which was formerly owned by the Trinity steel company, in 2005 for $2.6 million, with the express purpose of developing it. The Authority also has options to buy another 17 acres of land for retail next to the Wal-Mart site. The purchase price is actually $3.6 million for the land, plus $1 million from Wal-Mart for “community revitalization.” Wal-Mart has told the city it will spend about $15 million building the store, which the Authority projects will employ 400 people and generate $4.7 million a year in taxes for the city and county. These are obviously gross figures, not counting costs to the city for services to the site, or lost jobs at other businesses. The $1 million offer to the city is quite a change for Wal-Mart. The city of Birmingham gave the retailer $11 million for its store being built at the old Eastwood Mall site. But not everyone is lying down with Wal-Mart.

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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, May 04 | 0 comments | Permalink

Crofton, MD. Developer Pulls the Plug on Wal-Mart Supercenter

Community pressure has squeezed Wal-Mart out of another community. On April 18, 2006, Sprawl-Busters reported that Anne Arundel County, Maryland, had five Wal-Marts, but the mega-retailer proposed to build a 143,000 s.f. store roughly 6 miles from an existing store. That thought stimulated a citizen’s group, Crofton First, to try to block the latest big box assault. Wal-Mart applied to build a store on 20 acres of land. A spokesman for Wal-Mart told The Capital newspaper that the proposed store was “on the small side,” even though its nearly the size of 3 football fields under one roof. There are already two Wal-Mart stores in nearby Glen Burnie, one in Hanoverand one in Russett, plus a Sam’s Club in Parole. Wal-Mart told the newspaper that the latest store would not take sales from the Wal-Mart in Bowie, Maryland, just 6 miles to the south. “We are a retailer,” the Wal-Mart spokesperson said. “We are in the business of profit. One (store) has nothing to do with the other. It’s different communities and different needs.” Today, Sprawl-Busters received word from Crofton First that the shadow of a Wal-Mart over their community has been lifted. “We have some exciting news,” the group wrote. “Crofton First Co-Chairman, Madonna Brennan, received a phone call this afternoon from County Councilman Benoit stating that Berkshire (land owner) is ending his sale agreement with Wal-Mart and will look for a more suitable buyer.

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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, May 04 | 0 comments | Permalink

Bushnell, FL. Empty Wal-Mart Turned Into A Jail

What do you do with a huge, empty Wal-Mart? For the past decade, Sprawl-Busters has chronicled the moth-balling of hundred of what Wal-Mart calls their “dark stores.” These are discount stores that Wal-Mart has abandoned---not because they were unprofitable---but because they were not profitable enough. Since 1995, Wal-Mart has been methodically shutting down hundreds of discount stores, and the retailer, operating through Wal-Mart Realty, has a team of real estate employees who are trying to sell, lease or give away these “old” buildings, many of which have been on the market for at least three years or more. There is no great pressure for Wal-Mart to sell these properties, since the company “rents” some of these buildings from itself, and deducts the rent as an expense from its taxable income at the state level. But Wall Street analysts have criticized the company for carrying so much dead space. The problem for Wal-Mart is that many of these buildings are larger than 100,000 s.f. and are not easy to market. In Florida, Wal-Mart currently has 3 properties for sale or lease, for a total of 238,740 s.f. But that’s a vast improvement compared to 2004, when Wal-Mart had 11 properties for sale or lease in Florida, totaling 809,119 s.f. Many of these properties end up coming off the tax rolls, and never being completely filled. For example, The Daily Sun newspaper reports that the old Wal-Mart in Bushnell, Florida has been converted into---of all things---a jail. After more than a decade in the Sumter County Judicial Building, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office will move into the former Wal-Mart building in the South Sumter Shopping Center by the end of May. “Our new facilities are much larger than the space here in the Judicial Building with built-in room to grow,” said Sheriff Bill Farmer. The new jail in the old Wal-Mart building on County Road 475 will have about three times as much space as the current location, plus 30,000 square feet available for future growth. “We’re real excited about the move,” sheriff’s Maj. Jimmy Terry said. “Now we’ll have plenty of space and room for a training facility. We’ll be able to host training here for our employees and other agencies.”

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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, May 04 | 0 comments | Permalink

Harrison, OH. Judge Sides With Wal-Mart, But Still No Store

Sprawl-Busters reported on June 26, 2005 that the city council in Harrison, Ohio had rejected a zone change request to build a Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Wal-Mart first filed their proposal in 2003. But when Wal-Mart filed a lawsuit against the city, Harrison’s attorneys predicted the city could lose as much as $3 million if the case went to trial.
Harrison Mayor Dan Gieringer said such a loss would lead to mandatory layoffs in all city departments. Harrison officials eventually agreed to a “consent decree” to settle out of court with Wal-Mart. The agreement required the company to reduce the size of its store from 205,000 s.f. to 185,000 s.f., and to donate 20 acres of the 54 acre site to the city for a park. The agreement also called for Wal-Mart to put up $1.8 million towards the cost of a $6 million bridge to cross over Interstate 74. After the consent decree was announced, local opponents in Harrison began circulating a referendum petition to block the rezoning, and got enough signatures to put the matter on the ballot. In January of 2007, the Harrison County Board of Elections ruled that the project could be put on a referendum. Wal-Mart promptly challenged the referendum before the Board of Elections-—but they lost their appeal. Wal-Mart had argued that the consent decree was an administrative matter, not a legislative matter, and that administrative matters are not subject to a referendum. The retailer then announced that it would appeal the Board of Elections ruling to Harrison County Court. Today, a Harrison County Judge issued a permanent injunction, preventing the voter referendum. The judge ruled that the Harrison City Council’s consent agreement to settle the original Wal-Mart lawsuit was an administrative decision, not subject to referendum. The judge’s ruling, however, can be appealed, which means the Harrison Residents for Responsible Development, who have been fighting Wal-Mart since the proposal was first unveiled, will still have time to get the referendum on a Hamilton County ballot this year. The Judge’s ruling specifically indicated that Harrison’s zoning decisions would be subject to voter referendum under Ohio law, but a decision to settle a lawsuit is not. The Judge said the residents could not force the city to wage a legal battle against Wal-Mart. “To allow a group of citizens, however well-intentioned, to force Harrison to continue to litigate ... would have the effect of converting Harrison’s charter into a financial suicide pact,” the Judge wrote in his ruling.

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Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, May 03 | 0 comments | Permalink

Roanoke, VA. Judge Sides With Wal-Mart In Citizen’s Appeal

On March 13, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that residents in Roanoke, Virginia had filed a lawsuit to stop a Wal-Mart supercenter from being built. The group “Citizens for Smart Growth Roanoke” charged that Roanoke County failed to follow their own procedures in approving the Wal-Mart at the end of October, 2006. The County Board of Supervisors rezoned land for the Wal-Mart, and then gave the project a special permit for a 41 acre piece of land. The location of the proposed superstore is just south of an existing Wal-Mart along Route 220, which will surely close if this superstore is approved. The land is located in an overlay zoning district that places restrictions on building design, landscaping, signs, and lighting. It also requires that any building larger than 50,000 s.f.
obtain a special permit. Holrob, the Tennessee developer, submitted a Wal-Mart supercenter four times greater, at over 200,000 s.f. Residents charged that the special use permit granted therefore violated the intent of the overlay district, which was to limit the size and scenic impact of retail buildings. This week, residents wrote Sprawl-Busters with the following update: “The circuit court ruled to dismiss our lawsuit. ALL the traffic now will use the one entrance/exit. Wal-Mart just assumed they could get a 2nd entrance at the upscale Landrover dealership, but they were told “NO.” We, of course, were all told 60% of the traffic would never reach the nearby school. What a joke!” According to the Roanoke Times, Judge Robert Doherty ruled that the county’s decision to allow the construction met the legal standard of being “fairly debatable,” that even if “objective and reasonable persons” had differing opinions about it, the board of supervisors’ decision was reasonable and legal.