ANOTHER SETBACK FOR CLOVIS, CA WAL-MART
Judge faults study on Wal-Mart Supercenter [Fresno Bee (Calif.)]
A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in north Clovis is being delayed again after a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled the city did not meet state guidelines in studying water impacts and urban decay.
In a ruling last week, Judge Wayne Ellison said the city of Clovis complied with state guidelines on a host of other issues raised by opponents of the 491,000-square-foot retail center, which includes Wal-Mart and other stores.
But the city needs a revised environmental document that addresses the cumulative effects of urban decay and water availability across a wider area than just Clovis, Ellison ruled.
Ellison will now have to decide whether Clovis can make limited revisions to its environmental report, or will be required to prepare a completely new assessment.
Despite the delays, the project’s developer said the center, at the northeast corner of Herndon and Clovis avenues, will be built.
David Paynter said his company is “committed to the project no matter how long it may take.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, August 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS SUE BARSTOW, CA OVER WAL-MART DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Firm Sues Over Wal-Mart DC [Traffic World]
A law firm claiming to represent environmental groups is suing the city of Barstow, Calif., over a huge Wal-Mart distribution center planned for the city.
Briggs Law charges in the suit that the Southern California city did not properly prepare an environmental impact statement on the distribution center. The firm says it represents a group called Build Barstow Smart.
Wal-Mart plans to build a facility of greater than a million square feet on the outskirts of the town, which sits at a key road and rail junction about 125 miles northeast of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
An attorney at the firm told the Victorville, Calif., Daily Press that the group is most concerned about emissions and water use at the high desert site. Wal-Mart has said there is enough water in the area for the center.
Officials in Barstow have decried the suit and have said there is no coalition behind the law firm, which the newspaper said has sued Wal-Mart and other developers in the region repeatedly in recent years.
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, August 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Clovis, CA. Court Hands Wal-Mart Another Setback
On May 25, 2008, Sprawl-Busters noted that Wal-Mart had let five years slip away in the city of Clovis, California. Instead of a superstore, all the retailer can show its stockholders is a super legal bill. Local residents have been pushing back against big box stores for years. Clovis, population roughly 90,000, already has six Wal-Marts within 18 miles, and
a Wal-Mart discount store on West Shaw Avenue in Clovis. But the closest superstore is 26 miles away in Dinuba, California. Wal-Mart wants to build a bigger store in the shadows of the majestic Sierra Nevada.
The city manager of Clovis says that “unchecked growth elsewhere in California has slowed services and lessened the quality of life,” but in Clovis, they have “benefited from observing planning practices that have and haven’t worked in other communities.” The managers boasts, “We are building a community with a commitment to thoughtful design, planned growth and quality services.” On August 3, 2003, Sprawl-Busters reported that the City planning commissioners in Clovis, by a 3-1 vote, had given preliminary approval to a zoning change that would require conditional use permits to open super stores larger than 15,000 s.f.. The zoning change was suggested by area merchants in response to plans for a 200,000 s.f.
Wal-Mart supercenter.
Local grocers told city officials that the community could not sustain more grocery stores without forcing others to close, leading to empty buildings and dead malls. A representative of a group called Save Mart told the City Council that a grocery store needs 10,000 people to survive, and that Clovis, which had 77,000 people at the time, could support 10 markets--but not a huge superstore. In April, 2003, the City Council approved a site plan application for a Wal-Mart, but the decision was appealed by a group called the Association for Sensible and Informed Planning, on the grounds that no environmental impact study was done for the project.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, August 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
FIRM OPPOSITION TO NEW WAL-MART in REDLANDS, CA
Idea of new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Redlands raises concerns [Press Enterprise (Calif.)]
If all the pieces fall into place, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could open a new Supercenter in north Redlands by 2010.
Longtime San Bernardino Wal-Mart shopper John Gibson plans to be among the first to visit the 215,000-square-foot store stocked with 150,000 items and featuring a full-service supermarket. Gibson talked during a recent visit to Redlands’ 17-year-old Wal-Mart at 2050 W. Redlands Blvd.
Opponents, on the other hand, say the project will result in increased traffic in the area and harm existing mom-and-pop stores, among other concerns.
“Why can’t the great Wal-Mart remodel the (store) we now have?” asked Redlands resident Robby Robinson. “If they sell the (existing) store, who’s going to buy it? Some swap-meet outfit like the one in San Bernardino? That should make Redlands look good.”
A battle could be brewing despite the fact that the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has yet to submit an application to build the new Supercenter in Redlands. But there’s no doubt Wal-Mart is interested in a 40-acre tract at the southeast corner of Tennessee Street and San Bernardino Avenue.
Wal-Mart recently agreed to pay $450,000 for an environmental impact study on the property, according to an amended agreement approved at Redlands City Council’s most recent meeting.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, August 18 | 0 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART PROPOSAL DRAWS IRE IN YAKIMA, WA
New Yakima development draws ire of neighbors [Yakima Herald-Republic (Wash.)]
Former Yakima mayor John Puccinelli dropped the W-bomb during a hearing Thursday at City Hall over the future of a proposed gated community known as Toscanna.
“This could be the next Wal-Mart,” Puccinelli warned, referring to a legal battle over a proposed Wal-Mart store in the West Valley that has cost the city millions of dollars in attorney fees.
At issue is whether city planners were right to approve Toscanna, a proposed $40 million housing development in the 4200 block of Castlevale Avenue just west of North 40th Avenue.
The 30-acre site sits below Carriage Hill, one of the city’s classier neighborhoods. Developer David Sjule wants to build 42 duplexes and 96 apartment units comprising 15 apartment buildings on the site, a former orchard.
But neighbors said they don’t trust Sjule and his talk of “Tuscany with a Southwestern flair.” They fear the development is really just rental housing with a fancy name.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, August 15 | 0 comments | Permalink
CITIZENS GROUP SUES CITY OVER WAL-MART IN BARSTOW, CA
Law firm, advocacy group sues city over Wal-Mart distribution center [Desert Dispatch (Calif.)]
A law firm has taken the city and its plans to build a Wal-Mart distribution center to court over environmental concerns with the project’s plans.
Briggs Law Corporation, on behalf of an advocacy group named Build Barstow Smart, filed a lawsuit on August 8 at the Barstow courthouse alleging that the city had not properly prepared an environmental impact report for the more-than-1-million-square-foot distribution center proposed along Lenwood Road north of Jasper Road and southeast of the High Desert Estates housing area.
According to the suit, Build Barstow Smart opposes the distribution center and certain actions taken by the city and Wal-Mart and is seeking to void the certification of the environmental impact report and the approval of the center. The City Council approved the report and the project by a unanimous vote at the July 21 meeting.
The suit claims that the environmental impact report failed to address several significant adverse effects the distribution center would have on the area, that alternatives to the project and mitigations to the impacts were not thoroughly studied, that California Environmental Quality Act guidelines were not followed and that the city violated subdivision and zoning laws.
While the suit mentions many negative impacts from the distribution center, Cory Briggs, the San Diego- and Upland-based attorney for Build Barstow Smart, said that he is most concerned about the greenhouse emissions from the center and the center’s water use. Briggs is concerned the facility will suck dry the already scarce supply of water in the area, and in a previous letter to the city, Briggs asked Wal-Mart to consider installing solar panels to offset emissions from the facility.
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Posted by Tony Calero on Thursday, August 14 | 1 comments | Permalink
DEL NORTE, CA COUNCIL MOVES FORWARD WITH WAL-MART PLAN
County sides with Wal-Mart [The Daily Triplicate (Calif.)]
The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors decided to move forward Tuesday with Wal-Mart’s expansion into a Supercenter.
Supervisors heard passionate comments on both sides of the issue during a public hearing on an appeal of the county Planning Commission’s decision to certify the Environmental Impact Review for the expansion.
In a 3-1 vote (Supervisor Leslie McNamer was absent), the board denied the appeal.
The appellant, the Crescent Heritage Coalition, still has 30 days to challenge the ruling in court. Its attorney, Paul Hagen, said a legal challenge probably would be filed, which could at least stall the expansion.
The expansion would almost double the size of the current store to include groceries and other merchandise.
Hagen told The Triplicate that there are multiple legal problems with the EIR, which he said should be thrown out or re-evaluated.
Local resident Ron Cole, on behalf of the coalition, appealed the planning commission’s decision. He said at the meeting Tuesday the two main issues that are not fully researched in the EIR are urban decay—basically the effects of business closures—and water runoff into Elk Creek.
“Del Norte residents cannot afford to rely on an inadequate (EIR),” he said, adding that it risks the county’s economic development and environment.
Several people said that Wal-Mart has hurt small businesses since it opened in 1992. Patti Pearcey, the owner of the Bookcomber bookstore downtown, said businesses “went down like dominos.”
“We can’t turn back the clock, but expansion is not necessary,” Pearcey said. “We need to support each other. I haven’t seen local government support us.”
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Posted by Tony Calero on Thursday, August 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
DEL NORTE, CA HEARING DATE SET ON APPEAL
Hearing set on appeal of Wal-Mart expansion [Daily Triplicate (Calif.)]
An appeal of Planning Commission approval of Wal-Mart expansion will be the subject of a public hearing before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Ron Cole, on behalf of the Crescent City Heritage Coalition, appealed the Planning Commission’s June 4 decision to adopt an Environmental Impact Report for Wal-Mart’s expansion to a Supercenter.
The county planning department has recommended that the board deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission’s decision.
In Cole’s appeal letter, he stated the public brought up several issues, such as environmental concerns, traffic, global warming and urban decay, that were not fully addressed in the EIR.
“The level of detail in an EIR’s analysis must correspond to an impact’s severity and likelihood of occurrence,” Cole wrote.
He requested that supervisors decertify the EIR and send it back to the Planning Commission to have these issues further studied.
“Specifically, the EIR needs to trace cause and effect through anticipated economic and/or social changes from the Project to physical changes in the environment,” Cole wrote.
He also stated that because possible changes in the environment from the expansion were not adequately addressed in the EIR, it is not in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
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Posted by Tony Calero on Monday, August 11 | 4 comments | Permalink
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