Heber City, UT. Voters Will Determine Fate of Wal-mart Project November 6th.
Heber City, Utah voted in 2005 for a cap on the size of retail stores-—but city officials in 2007 voted to give them a looser one---loose enough that it’s really no cap at all. On June 8, 2005, Sprawl-Busters reported that the City Council in Heber City had voted unanimously to set a size limitation of 60,000 s.f on stores that will keep retailers from building huge outlets in the city. During the two-hour public hearing in 2005, a majority of speakers urged the council not to jeopardize the small-town character of Heber City. “We need to have a cap [on retail floor space] to preserve our lifestyle,” one resident told the Salt Lake Tribune. “As soon as we bring in big-box, we’ll lose our tourist dollars. Who will want to come here if we’re just like Salt Lake?” But that wasn’t the end of the story. Heber Mayor Dave Phillips was concerned that shoppers were taking their money out of Heber to go to the big box stores, so in February, 2007, the City Council amended the ordinance to lift the limit to 150,000 s.f.---big enough to allow a Wal-Mart supercenter. As a result of that reversal of direction by the Mayor, a local group called “Put Heber Valley First” began collecting the 1,160 signatures needed to put the issue of a size cap on the city’s ballot in November. Voters will decide Nov. 6 whether they want a Wal-Mart off their Main Street. The question on the ballot asks if a new zone should be accepted allowing retail outlets larger than 60,000 square feet into the Wasatch County community. The Boyer Company development firm wants to build a 70-acre mixed-use development that, if voters approve, would include Wal-Mart as the anchor tenant. The Heber development would be a mix of single-family housing, and townhomes-—all with a Wal-Mart for a view---that would be a buffer between the residents to the west and the commercial development. Wal-Mart opponents say that Heber City stands to losed its charm and local flavor if the superstore project is approved. According to the Deseret Morning News, the developer has been suggesting that Heber is losing $100 million a year in retail sales by Heber residents shopping in other towns.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, October 30 | 0 comments | Permalink
Heber City, UT. Wal-Mart Debate Goes to a Vote
Voters to decide if Wal-Mart will be welcome [Salt Lake Tribune]
To Wal-Mart or not to Wal-Mart? That’s the conundrum.
Although the Nov. 6 ballot in Heber City will ask voters whether a new zone should be created to allow big-box retail stores of up to 150,000 square feet, in essence it’s a vote for or against a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
The Salt Lake City-based Boyer Company development firm, along with the big-box, cut-rate retailer, has proposed a multifaceted project called “Heber City Crossing” near the intersection of U.S. Highway 40 and State Route 189 at Heber City’s south end.
As proposed, it also would include small retail shops and housing.
With election day nearing, the back-and-forth rhetoric is about as hot as it gets in this fast-growing Wasatch County mountain town southeast of Park City.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, October 29 | 0 comments | Permalink
CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: RESISTANCE TO WAL-MART REACHES “FEVER PITCH”
Opponents seek to get Wal-Mart on the ballot [Ventura County Star (Calif.)]
Resistance to a possible Wal-Mart store in Ventura has reached a fever pitch as labor-backed opponents have announced an all-out effort to get a measure before voters while city leaders have stressed patience.
The Stop Ventura Wal-Mart Coalition Action Team, claiming city leaders have repeatedly ignored their calls for a local ordinance to block a Wal-Mart supercenter, plans to soon submit language for a ballot measure. The group is aiming for the November 2008 ballot and will need at least 6,000 valid signatures, or 10 percent of Ventura’s roughly 60,000 registered voters, to qualify.
The debate over a Wal-Mart store has raged locally since the world’s largest retailer first talked to city planners two years ago about demolishing the Kmart store on Victoria Avenue and replacing it with one of its discount stores.
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Posted by Michael Mignano on Friday, October 26 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Buys its Way into the Hearts of Politicians in Key States
Learn more about Wal-Mart’s political influence and other methods the company employs to roll back its taxes.
Wal-Mart Courts State Politicos [BusinessWeek]
Wal-Mart Stores has been sharply increasing political contributions in states where it is trying to cut its corporate tax bill. That’s according to data just released from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group based in Helena, Mont.
Over the past four election cycles, the retailing giant has ratcheted up contributions in nine states that are key to its operations: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Its political contributions in those states rose from $139,822 in the 2000 election cycle to $879,441 in the 2006 election cycle, according to the institute. Wal-Mart’s efforts to reduce its corporate taxes in those states have come to light as a result of a lawsuit that the attorney general of North Carolina filed against the company to challenge its tax-cutting strategies.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, October 26 | 27 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart: America’s Tax Deadbeat
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.
A report released this week by the non-profit group Good Jobs First, concludes that Wal-Mart methodically works to lower its taxes by challenging the assessed value of its stores and distribution centers. Just as the company has become legendary for shaking down its vendors---so the retailer shakes down cities and towns for tax rebates.
The nonpartisan research center in Washington, D.C. documented in an earlier study how Wal-Mart has benefited from billions of dollars in public subsidies to build its stores and site infrastructure. Their new analysis, Rolling Back Property Tax Payments, charges that although the financial take is not as large as its public welfare subsidies---Wal-Mart “drains vitally needed funds from communities by regularly challenging the valuation put on its properties by public officials.” According to Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First, “When the company succeeds in one of these challenges, it diminishes the funds available to pay for education, police and fire protection, and other essential services provided by local governments.”
Good Jobs First reviewed a national sample of Wal-Mart stores and all of its distribution centers open as of the beginning of 2005. Wal-Mart has filed assessment challenges at more than one-third of its facilities around the country. At many facilities there have been appeals in multiple years. Overall, Good Jobs First estimates that Wal-Mart filed more than 2,100 property tax challenges nationwide. “These systematic property tax challenges are part of a larger pattern of state and local tax avoidance by Wal-Mart,” Mattera explained.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, October 16 | 23 comments | Permalink
Page, Arizona- Round and Round we’d like to go
Page council supports roundabout despite objections from Wal-Mart 
PAGE—Page City Council reaffirmed its support for a roundabout near the Wal-Mart Supercenter Thursday night, even though Wal-Mart has said it doesn’t want to build one.
Council’s 4-2 vote may turn out be be only symbolic, as the Arizona Department of Transportation has the final word on construction of a traffic control device at the busy intersection.
Traffic on Highway 89 at Haul Road picked up considerably in January 2006 when Wal-Mart opened. In 2004, Page City Council sold the land for the supercenter on the stipulation that the local houseboating industry had to be accommodated.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Monday, October 15 | 0 comments | Permalink
Tempe, AZ May hit Wal-Mart Trifecta
Wal-Mart market may be coming to south Tempe [Arizona Republic]
Wal-Mart is moving toward opening another store in south Tempe, meaning the company could soon operate three discount retailers in the city.
Wal-Mart already has a “Superstore” location at Elliot Road and Priest Drive, and the company has plans to open a second store at Rural Road and Southern Avenue, where a Mervyn’s currently operates.
The newest addition could bring a different kind of Wal-Mart to Tempe: Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. Wal-Mart calls the intended site a “specialty grocery and retail concept” store in its permit application to the city. Documents show Wal-Mart intends to convert a vacant, 2-acre Osco Pharmacy site at Elliot and Rural roads. The building would be fixed up, but additional retail or parking square-footage would be added.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Thursday, October 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Park City, UT. A Wal-Mart Supercenter?
Tuesday members of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission were expected to pan a proposal to expand the size of Wal-Mart at Kimball Junction by nearly 60 percent so groceries could be sold at the store.
A new Wal-Mart Supercenter, however, could anger those opposed to any expansion of the retailer.
“All along, the Planning Commission was asking the applicant if they were going to be a super Wal-Mart and add a grocery,” Summit County planner Kimber Gabryszak said. “[Wal-Mart] always said no they weren’t. But then Wal-Mart changed their minds last-minute.”
Last year, developer Troy Herald applied for a permit to expand the size of Wal-Mart in the Snyderville Basin from 71,844 to about 115,758 square-feet.
“Their expansion is staying the same size, but the use is going to change,” Gabryszak said. “They were not asking for a grocery and they were not asking for super Wal-Mart status.”
Converting the business into a grocery store will increase traffic along already congested Landmark Drive, she said.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, October 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
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