Arizona: City Seeks Unique Look For Planned Supercenter
Avondale Rejects Wal-Mart Design [The Arizona Republic]
Avondale leaders have sent Wal-Mart back to the drawing board after the chain proposed a store that one council member said was as bland as “a bowl of oatmeal.”
“We told them we wanted something different,” Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers said. “We told them that people are not happy they are coming here, so they have to be unique and different. I thought they got the message.”
If they didn’t get if before, they do now.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board,” said Delia Garcia, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, which wants to open a Supercenter at Avondale Boulevard and McDowell Road. “We’ll come up with something they will approve.”
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, July 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
ARIZONA SITE FIGHT: ATTITUDE IN TUCSON
Wal-Mart gets attitude in Tucson, Arizona [AOL Blogging Stocks]
Communities across the nation have erected so-called “big box” ordinances geared to keeping stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) Supercenters and Target Corp.’s (NYSE: TGT) SuperTargets out of the way. The gamut of reasons is pretty straightforward: Large-format stores cause urban pollution, traffic problems, possible crime increases as well as hurting smaller, hometown retailers because of price decreases brought on by resultant economies of scale. Guess which one above is the real reason most city governments don’t want big-box stores around?
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Tuesday, July 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Save The World…Or Shop At Wal-Mart?
Gerry Braun, a columnist with the San Diego Union-Tribune, has managed to simplify the Wal-Mart dilemma by asking one very basic question: Would you undermine civilization as we know it in exchange for some cheap groceries?
Braun finds something very satisfying about heading to Wal-Mart and saving $2 on a bag of Starbucks coffee. Yet, between finding parking in Wal-Mart’s mega-sized parking lot and attempting not to get lost in the nearly five football fields worth of retail floor space, Braun also makes some personal observations about a large class of San Diego voters who make the drive out to the Palm Desert supercenter - “folks who won’t buy the argument that higher prices promote a healthier economy, and will welcome Wal-Mart supercenters to the city as long as they go in someone else’s neighborhood.”
Vote to save civilization or a couple of dollars? [San Diego Union-Tribune]
A stimulating after-dinner amusement, popularized in the board game “A Question of Scruples,” is to pose an ethical dilemma to your friends, and then compare answers.
For instance: Would you lie under oath to prevent a heinous killer from going free?
Or: Would you accept a huge pay raise if it meant your co-workers’ salaries would be cut by 15 percent?
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, July 10 | 18 comments | Permalink
Texas Site Fight: Neighborhood Group Files Lawsuit Against City
In Austin, Texas, the fight over a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter has provoked protests and lawsuits. Wal-Mart appears to have emerged victorious, and the west side of Northcross Mall in Austin will be demolished to make room for a 192,000 square foot store. But lawsuits notwithstanding, there are those who feel that win or lose, the public process has ultimately changed the project for the better.
City sued again over Northcross Wal-Mart [Austin Business Journal]
The Allandale Neighborhood Association filed a lawsuit against the city of Austin, requesting a declaratory judgement that the city violated its own ordinances requiring a public hearing in connection to the redevelopment of Northcross Mall, which includes a Wal-Mart supercenter.
In an open public forum on June 27, the Allandale Neighborhood Association Executive Committee voted unanimously to instruct its attorneys at Blazier Christensen Bigelow & Virr PC to proceed with a lawsuit.
Allan McCurty, chair of the neighborhood association, says: “We just kept meeting blank walls so this is our last option.”
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, July 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
Arizona: Attempt To Repeal Big Box Ordinance Falls Short
Last week, the City of Tucson, Arizona, rejected Wal-Mart’s attemps to repeal the city’s big box ordinance. City Clerk Kathy Detrick said she rejected Wal-Mart’s petitions because Arizona state law says residents can’t use the initiative process to change or modify zoning laws.
City stifles Wal-Mart’s efforts to repeal portion of big-box ordinance [Arizona Daily Star]
The city has rejected Wal-Mart initiative petitions seeking to repeal a key-portion of Tucson’s big-box ordinance.
The move is likely to spark lawsuits, and again thrust the big-box fight to the front of the line of hot political issues heading into this year’s city election.
City Clerk Kathy Detrick said she rejected the petitions on the advice of City Attorney Mike Rankin, who said “Arizona law clearly states citizens cannot use the initiative process to change zoning laws or modify them.”
Rankin said he cannot “comment beyond what’s at issue in the case” because the city is “pretty certain” to be in litigation over the rejection of the initiative.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, July 09 | 3 comments | Permalink
Tucson, AZ. City Officials Reject Wal-Mart’s Ballot Question
On July 3, Sprawl-Busters updated a story from Tucson, Arizona about Wal-Mart’s funding of a ballot campaign to overturn the city’s big box ordinance that limits store size. Tucson has had a big box law since 1999, and Wal-Mart filed a lawsuit several years ago to have it declared unconstitutional---but lost. Wal-Mart hired a local consultant to pay signature gatherers to put the initiative petition on this November’s ballot. In that story, we suggested that city officials might reject Wal-Mart’s petition on legal grounds---and that’s exactly what the city did. Yesterday afternoon the petition was rejected by Tucson city Clerk Kathleen Detrick, who explained that Arizona law prevents initiatives from targeting land-use code such as the big-box ordinance. The city law that Wal-Mart says limits “consumer choice” is a zoning ordinance that limits the space dedicated to grocery sales in retail stores greater than or equal to 100,000 s.f. to no more than 10% of floor space. The law is similar to those passed in other states, most notably California.
Wal-Mart’s hired signature gatherers collected 21,934 signatures, twice as many as the 11,615 required for a ballot question. Tucson’s city lawyer communicated with Wal-Mart’s lawyers, and told The Tucson Citizen that he expects Wal-Mart to go to court to get their question on the ballot. The city asserts that state law prohibits ballot initiatives from targeting zoning ordinances because it circumvents the zoning process, including public hearings required by state law. Arizona law allows citizens to challenge a zoning ordinance on the ballot---but it must be done a month before the code goes into effect, not after. Wal-Mart is expected to take legal action promptly now that the city has rejected its petition.
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, July 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
ARIZONA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART PETITIONS TO REPEAL BIG BOX BAN
Organizers of a Wal-Mart sponsored push to repeal a portion of the city’s ban of big box stores say they will turn in roughly 18,000 signatures later this week.
Thursday is the deadline for nominating petitions for initiatives in Tucson’s elections this November. The retail chain needed to collect at least 11,615 signatures.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Tuesday, July 03 | 0 comments | Permalink
MD Law Encourages Big Box Stores To Go Solar
Among the 191 new state laws that take effect in the state of Maryland today, the effects of one may not be seen for a few years. Make no mistake, however. Its sponsor believes the law could serve as a national model and could reduce the cost of electricity, as traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas become more expensive.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed Senate Bill 595, which modifies the state’s renewable energy requirement to include a minimum percentage of solar power, starting at 0.005 percent of retail electricity sales in 2008 and increasing to 2 percent of electricity sales by 2022. The law is designed to encourage the use of solar panels by big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, July 02 | 5 comments | Permalink
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