Austin, TX. Wal-Mart Offers To Shrink Store
The last time Sprawl-Busters clocked-in on Austin, Texas was on February 11, 2007 when we reported that an estimated crowd of 2,500 Wal-Mart opponents had formed a human chain to protest the proposal for a Wal-Mart chain store. As Sprawl-Busters had reported in December and January, Wal-Mart is trying to force neighbors to accept a 225,000 s.f. superstore. But even in Texas, some things can be too big. All that human pressure exerted on one spot of land in Austin has forced the developer to come back in with a “smaller” plan---but not quite small enough to please opponents. The Austin Statesmen reports this week that Wal-Mart wants to cut the store by 15%---from 219,000 s.f. to 186,500 s.f. (This does not count the 5,500 s.f. garden center add-on). The developer, Lincoln Property Co. wants to redevelop the Northcross Mall into a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart has agreed to the “smaller” 186,500 s.f. store—which is still the size of four football fields under one roof. instead of a 219,000-square-foot one--plus garden center. According to The Statesman, Wal-Mart may have had another motive in mind. By reducing the size, Wal-Mart avoids a threshold that would have required it to use higher estimates to predict traffic created by the store. The more traffic the store creates, the more road improvements the developer would be required to pay for. Traffic counts at other Central Texas Wal-Marts showed that those stores draw as many as 28,277 car trips a day — almost three times the amount Lincoln has predicted for Northcross. The newspaper cites a 2006 article from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) which says that discount stores bigger than 200,000 s.f. generate more traffic than previously thought. The developer is working on a new traffic impact analysis for June. City officials told Wal-Mart that a 200,000 s.f. store would have to use higher estimates. Wal-Mart’s lawyer claims that a 186,000 s.f. Wal-Mart would be the “smallest” in Central Texas. The citizen’s group formed against this project, Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N), noted that a 192,000-s.f. store will create essentially the same traffic problems as a 219,000-s.f. store would. The group wants the developer to build a vertical, mixed-use development that would distribute traffic better. “Wal-Mart keeps coming back with a repackaged version of the same project: a supercenter,” a group member told the Statesman.
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, May 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Prescott Valley, AZ. Wal-Mart Spends $300K to Win Ballot Question
In a corporate democracy, the one with the most money wins. That’s the rule they follow in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart makes lavish “gifts” to local astro-roots citizens groups who support the retailer on election day. Case in point: Prescott Valley, Arizona. Sprawl-Busters reported on March 9, 2007 that the Prescott Valley Town Council had voted in July, 2006 to rezone 19.5 acres to allow Wal-Mart to build a superstore, but local residents challenged that vote on the ballot. In response, Wal-Mart hired a PR firm and created an “astro-roots” group to overwhelm the grassroots efforts to block their store. The measure was called Proposition 400, and a No vote would have killed the rezoning. The campaign committee set up by Wal-Mart ran afoul of state campaign reporting laws, and the town Clerk said that the so-called “Friends of Prescott Valley, Yes on 400” was facing a $70,000 fine for not reporting its income. This pro-Wal-Mart group gave the town a campaign statement that said the group had no receipts, but a debt of $33,313 for the Jan. 1 through Feb. 21 reporting period. State law mandates that campaign groups inform the town within 24 hours of its financial activities the first time it receives or spends $10,000 or more. On March 13th, the voters supported the Wal-Mart rezoning by a 65% majority. It turns out that every vote in Prescott Valley was worth its weight in gold, as the group received more than $300,658 from Wal-Mart and its consultants. The “Friends” group had very wealthy ties at Wal-Mart. The group reported receiving contributions from Wal-Mart Stores of Bentonville, Ark., of $100,000 on March 9, $116,100 March 12 and about $59,558 March 16, and $25,000 from the Prescott Valley-based Fain group March 9. The committee reported spending $266,243 during the Feb. 22 to April 2 reporting period. The group “Protect Prescott Valley,” received a total of $1,500 from Local 99 of the United Food & Commercial Workers union, and spent $1,486 during the same reporting period. That means for every one dollar spent by the anti Wal-Mart group, $179 was spent by the pro Wal-Mart group. In local ballot questions, finance law allows corporations to spend an unlimited amount of funding. The Friends of Prescott Valley faxed its financial report late to the town. The Town Attorney required the Friends group to submit an amended report for the pre-primary reporting period of Jan. 1 to Feb. 21 because he determined the previously submitted report was incomplete. The town notified the pro-Wal-Mart committee on April 2 that they faced a $30,000 fine but had the right to challenge the penalty.
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Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, April 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Santa Fe, NM. Wal-Mart Superstore Still In Legal Limbo
A judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico ruled last month that the City Council voted legally in August of 2005 to allow Wal-Mart to build a larger store in the city. But Wal-Mart is not yet in business, because local residents and area businesses have appealed the case to the state Court of Appeals, hoping to overturn the decision. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, two days ago, The Coalition Against Big Box Stores filed their case, claiming that the District Judge had failed to consider a “secret instruction” from the city’s attorney to councilors that limited the issues considered during an all-night council hearing. The city council hearing on the case in 2005 ran for six hours, and ended in the early morning hours. The Mayor of Santa Fe, Larry Delgado, cast the deciding vote in a 4-4 tie, that tipped the scales in Wal-Mart’s favor. The proposed 149,986 s.f. superstore would shut down Santa Fe’s existing Wal-Mart discount store on Cerrillos Road. A developer from Phoenix, Arizona has proposed the larger store on the 33 acre site. The legal challenge suggests that the city attorney’s advice, which was to tell councilors only to consider land use issues, and not economic or environmental issues, was flawed. Three city councilors have signed affidavits that say the city’s lawyer told them to ignore non-land use issues in a private briefing before the hearing, but the District Court judge would not allow their affidavits to be entered into the record. The plaintiffs charge that these 3 councilors “did not discuss with other members of the council what they considered to be the more important issues of how the Entrada Contenta development plan fit in with existing city of Santa Fe economic policies encouraging small business and entrepreneurship. The city attorney’s secret limitation came to light only when the councilors told others after the hearing.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, April 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
Albuquerque. NM. Wal-Mart Loses Battle To Balloonists
Wal-Mart got that deflated feeling this week, when the city council in Albuquerque, New Mexico shot down their plans for a superstore. The opponents that brought the big store down to earth were more than your usual mix of suspects. In Albuquerque, this may be the first Wal-Mart superstore ever defeated by balloonists. The retailer’s plans for a storen lost out to the city’s desire to acquire the land for a balloon landing site. “We’re not anti-Wal-Mart,” a group activists and balloonists told the Albuquerque Tribune. “We’re anti-colossal, regional big-box-type development that will essentially devastate this area.” A neighborhood group, the Alameda North Valley Association, opposed the 22-acre superstore site on Vista del Norte Drive Northeast. They warned against increased traffic, which would make it difficult and dangerous for neighborhood residents to get to and from their homes. The store would be open 24 hours and would sell alcohol. But they had allies among the balloonists. The Rainbow Ryders, Albuquerque’s largest balloon-ride company, said 70% of balloonists in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta pass over the now-empty field on Osuna. Many choose it as a natural landing spot, he said. “We’ve got a world-class launch facility” at Balloon Fiesta Park, said a spokesman for the Rainbow Ryders. “But the city needs to start thinking seriously about where people are supposed to land. As development continues, it’s getting more and more difficult.” But it’s not just balloonists that turned the wind against Wal-Mart. It was money. Last year, the balloon fiesta brought the city an estimated $120 million. The head of the Vista del Norte Alliance told the Tribune that Wal-Mart “has taken this to the next level” by putting up petitions in all its area stores asking shoppers to support the supercenter. “Now it’s corporate America versus the little guy, and I don’t believe we’re going to put up with it,” he said. “We’re going to fight it tooth and nail.” And the balloonists/neighbors won. Last night, the Albuquerque city councilors rejected Wal-Mart’s plan. The council voted to buy the site and keep it for a landing space for the annual balloon fiesta. City Council President Debbie O’Malley said the city has earmarked $6.1 million to buy the land, but added that Wal-Mart may be reluctant to sell---so the city may have to resort to eminent domain and condemn the land. The vote to reject Wal-Mart’s store was unanimous.
The county has appraised the land at $3.6 million, but Wal-Mart says it is worth more than $10 million. If a settlement price can’t be reached and the city seeks condemnation of the property, a judge will end up setting the purchase price. But don’t feel sorry for Wal-Mart shoppers in Albuquerque. The city already has 9 Wal-Marts, of which 6 are supercenters. It makes more sense economically to protect a major tourist event, than to over-saturate the area with a tenth Wal-Mart. The city council was unanimously right on this one.
Posted by Al Norman on Friday, April 06 | 0 comments | Permalink
Southwest News Updates - March 23, 2007
TEXAS SITE FIGHT: TALKS ON NEW STORE
Wal-Mart: Talks focus on new store [Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times]
What Wal-Mart and the owners of Parkdale Plaza won’t say can be found on the Web site of Quick & Company Commercial Realty Inc.
UTAH SITE FIGHT: TOWN AT IMPASSE
Cedar Hills postpones decision on Wal-Mart [Daily Herald (Provo, Utah)]
Wal-Mart in Cedar Hills has been delayed.
Just after midnight Wednesday morning, after listening to hours of expert testimony about the amount of noise and traffic a proposed Wal-Mart would generate, arguments broke out among Cedar Hills Council members. At 12:43 a.m., they voted to continue their discussion in two weeks.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
Littleton, CO. Citizens Take Wal-Mart To The Ballot
The Mayor of Littleton, Colorado told the Denver Post that his community voted for a Wal-Mart supercenter for a very straightforward reason. “The city needs the money,” Littleton Mayor Jim Taylor said. “It’s that simple.” This is the same commuity that Sprawl-Busters reported wanted to fine residents $1,000 for wearing anti-Wal-Mart T shirts to city hearings.
There are several Wal-Marts within a short drive of Littleton, but the Mayor wants some Wal-Mart cash to balance his budget. But he has no economic analysis that suggests the city would wind up a winner. The land Wal-Mart picked out was not correctly zoned. But the Littleton City Council obliged the retailer by voting recently to rezone it from residential and agricultural, to commercial. One neighbor to the project, a real estate broker for 37 years in Littleton, told the newspaper that several of his properties near the store have already lost 10% of their value, and he’s trying to sell them as quickly as possible at low, everyday prices. The proximity of this project to residential property in part prompted a group to form, called simply, “Littleton Against Wal-Mart.” Right after the city council rezoned land for Wal-Mart, the group continued its fight by going to the ballot. The citizens group sent out the following email to its supporters this week: “The City Clerk has just certified the citizen petition to force a Wal-Mart project to a public vote. Littleton Against Wal-Mart needed about 3,000 signatures to force the city council decision to approve the store to a public vote. The grass roots citizen group pounded the pavement to gather nearly 6,500 signatures. The city clerk stopped counting after she certified there were more than the required number of certified signatures. The Littleton City Council, which overwhelmingly backed the project, will decide whether there will be a special election soon or wait till the general election.
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Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, March 22 | 0 comments | Permalink
Southwest Regional News Updates: March 16, 2007
ARIZONA SITE FIGHT: VOTERS DECIDING
Voters to decide races in area towns, Wal-Mart fate [Yavapai County (Ariz) Daily Courier]
And while four incumbents are running unopposed in Prescott Valley, voters there will decide whether to uphold a council decision from this past July on rezoning 19.5 acres to allow a Wal-Mart supercenter.
UTAH SITE FIGHT: KEEPING WAL-MART OUT
Heber Residents Trying to Keep Wal-Mart Out [KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah]
A petition drive will begin tomorrow morning in Heber City. Members of “Keep Heber Valley First” want to prevent Wal-Mart from building a store there.
ARIZONA SITE FIGHT: NEW WAL-MART
New Wal-Mart to open in April [Yuma (Ariz.) Sun]
Yuma’s newest Wal-Mart, on the eastern edge of the city is due to open next month, about the same time construction on the San Luis, Ariz., store is slated to begin.
UTAH SITE FIGHT: STATE MAY RELAX LAWS
Utah may relax eminent domain laws [Central Utah Daily Herald]
Utah was one of the first states to rein in the use of eminent domain to make sure private development couldn’t capitalize on laws intended to serve the public good. Now, the state could be one of the first to relax those rules...House Bill 365 could allow Ogden to push forward with plans to condemn land so a Wal-Mart could be built.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 16 | 0 comments | Permalink
Heber City, UT. Voters May Put Size Cap On Ballot After Council Loosens Cap
Heber City, Utah voted in 2005 for a cap on the size of retail stores - but city officials recently 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.
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, March 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
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