GEORGIA SITE FIGHT: LANDOWNER TO SUE OVER DELAY
Landowner will sue Duluth over big-box moratorium [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Man says city-imposed moratorium delayed his selling 27 acres to Wal-MartA landowner who wants to sell 27 acres to Wal-Mart says he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against Duluth after the city imposed a six-month moratorium on big-box developments.
Former Gov. Roy Barnes represents the landowner, Jack Bandy, whose 27-acre parcel on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Gwinnett County is where Wal-Mart wants to build a 176,305-square-foot Supercenter.
Barnes said in a letter the city received Friday that the city acted improperly by imposing the moratorium.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 05 | 0 comments | Permalink
Florence, KY. Developer Says Wal-Mart Superstores Are Not Regional Facilities
Whatever it takes. That’s what developer Mike Hargis is prepared to say and do in order to build a 184,000 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter on U.S. 42 and Weaver Road in Florence, Kentucky.
When he learned that the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Boone County says that, “Regionally oriented growth should be confined to Mall Road and Houston Road, and should not expand onto U.S. 42, Ky. 18 or Hopeful Church Road, “ Hargis came up with an arbitrary definition of his own. He told city officials that anything 240,000 s.f. or more is regional. That means that Wal-Mart’s 205,000 s.f. supercenter on Houston Road in Florence, just three miles away, is not a regional facility. But Boone County Planner Dave Geohegan says that regional means anything that draws from outside the immediate jurisdiction.
Unfortunately for Hargis, two members of the Boone County Planning Commission zone change committee said that a supercenter is a regional development. “When you go to Wal-Mart you see (auto) tags from Ohio, Indiana and all over Kentucky,” one commission member said. Attorney Kim Pramaggoire, who represents Boone County Residents for Responsible Growth, told the Commission, “On top of that, you have all the mom-and-pop stores that are going to be gobbled up by this regional store.” But Wal-Mart officials kept saying a superstore is not regional. “The whole premise of this location is that it’s more neighborhood-oriented,” said one of Wal-Mart’s engineers.
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Posted by Al Norman on Wednesday, September 05 | 0 comments | Permalink
Easy Steps for Overcoming Local Opposition
We couldn’t resist this sly commentary on big box development’s approach to fighting local opposition to their stores. This op-ed columnist from the LA Times makes crushing citizens’ groups sound so easy!
How to build whatever you want [Los Angeles Times]
Progress without strategy is regress. Time and again a new Wal-Mart or airport runway that would enable investors to make as much money as they want or consumers to travel twice as often from here to there is stalled by the Taliban mentalities of local resistance. Fortunately for America and its future, a formula exists whose careful application seldom fails. It deserves to be better known. Here it is.
Delay announcing your development for as long as possible. Never underestimate the element of surprise. This is not merely a matter of catching your opponents off-guard. Most people have an entrenched fatalism, as evidenced by the number of lottery tickets they buy. To give the appearance of a fait accompli is to take on the authority of fate. It was bound to happen. Whatcha gonna do?
Never lose an opportunity to outlast your opponents by outspending them. If there’s a formal approval process, do everything in your power to prolong it. Amend your proposal. Reschedule your testimony. The new paradigm of “let them eat cake” is “let them hold a bake sale”—again and again.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 05 | 1 comments | Permalink
NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: PLANNING BOARD TO ACCEPT PUBLIC COMMENT ON WMT PLAN
Greece Wal-Mart talks continue [Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle]
Meeting continues discussion on proposal for Northgate Plaza.
The Greece Planning Board will accept more public comment on the proposed Wal-Mart at Northgate Plaza during its meeting Wednesday.
The meeting is a continuation of an Aug. 12 public hearing that ran until well past 2 a.m. as the Planning Board asked questions of the developer, Widewaters Group Inc., about plans for a 145,945-square-foot superstore that would replace parts of the existing plaza on Dewey Avenue.
That meeting was the third joint meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Board held to discuss the proposal.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 04 | 0 comments | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: MAYOR POSTPONES ZONING HEARING
Daytona mayor tables Wal-Mart rezoning issue [Daytona Beach News-Journal]
A citizens group’s concerns about the effects of a proposed new Wal-Mart Supercenter in their neighborhood have led Mayor Glenn Ritchey and city officials to postpone final rezoning approval for the store, the mayor said Friday.
The issue was to go before the City Commission on Wednesday, but Ritchey said after meeting with members of the recently formed Kingston Community Group, city officials want to make sure the neighboring residents’ concerns are addressed before the commission considers final approval.
“We agreed to table it until November,” Ritchey said. “This gives us the opportunity to initiate and explore possibilities that are beneficial to all concerned.”
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 04 | 0 comments | Permalink
Florida Site Fight: Wal-Mart Will Bring More Crime
WFTV in Florida has a report about the proposed Wal-Mart in Port Orange, Fla.
Click to be taken to the WFTV site, the video will play automatically.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, August 29 | 0 comments | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: YOU SAY POTATO…
A Pitch for Jobs: Putnam OKs Wal-Mart facility — Again [The Palatka (Fla.) Daily News]
Putnam County commissioners took steps Tuesday to allow construction of a Wal-Mart distribution center in a potato field south of Crescent City.
Supporters term the action an effort to bring jobs to an impoverished area.
Opponents predict road congestion and bemoan the loss of farmland.
Putnam’s initial approval of the project in 2006 spawned several lawsuits and stiff opposition from many South Putnam residents and Volusia County, whose border with Putnam is near the proposed distribution center’s site.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, August 29 | 0 comments | Permalink
TENNESSEE SITE FIGHT: ON THE FENCE
Wal-Mart Still on Fence about Mall of Memphis Site [Memphis Daily News]
At some point in September, a group of Wal-Mart executives will hunker down at a private meeting in Memphis to strategize about various opportunities for the retail giant in the city.
The company recently has been active here on several new fronts. Wal-Mart sold a parcel of land on Hickory Hill Road this month, for example, to an Arkansas-based oil company that is buying up land it leases from Wal-Mart for its gas stations. This spring, Wal-Mart also filed a $7.1 million building permit to build one of its Supercenters on part of the 95-acre site once home to the Mall of Memphis.
Lurking in the background at that meeting next month in Memphis, though, almost assuredly will be the overall company’s performance of late, which has caused many a furrowed brow among shareholders and company analysts. Wal-Mart’s stock price, which is down 9.2 percent year-to-date as of Aug. 23, hit a 52-week low of $42.92 on Aug. 16.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, August 28 | 0 comments | Permalink
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