California Site Fight: Two Bakersfield Wal-Marts inch Closer
Wal-Marts clear 2nd vote [Bakersfield Californian] 
Supercenters next go to court for hearing
Two Wal-Marts were rubberstamped and the city agreed to turn streets over to developers at a short Bakersfield City Council meeting Wednesday.
The two Wal-Mart supercenters were approved last month, but the City Council had to give them a second vote Wednesday. The stores now go to Kern County Superior Court for a determination whether the environmental reports are complete enough to allow construction.
In other action, the council:
* Voted to vacate four blocks of street—13th Street between N and P streets, and O Street from California Avenue to 14th Street. The streets will be turned over to the companies developing the planned movie theater and retail center in the area. An alley parallel to California Avenue was also to be vacated.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Thursday, December 13 | 0 comments | Permalink
Mill Creek, WA. Wal-Mart Cancels One Superstore, Delays Two More
On November 13, 2006, Sprawl-Busters reported that citizens in Mill Creek, Washington had forced Wal-Mart to do an Environmental Impact Study(EIS) for a proposed superstore. The residents fought the retailer, and their local officials, to win their case before a hearing officer. A simple mailing mistake by Wal-Mart cost the retailer a chance to appeal the Hearing Examiner’s ruling about the EIS. The residents at the time wrote, “Citizens for a Better Mill Creek thank UFCW Local 21, our land-use attorney Claudia Newman, and Sprawl-Busters for our victorious site-fight against a proposed 24/7 Wal-Mart adjacent to wetlands and across the street from two schools.
The Snohomish County Hearing Examiner ruled in September 2006 that Wal-Mart must prepare and submit an Environmental Impact Statement on stormwater drainage and traffic impacts. Wal-Mart petitioned for reconsideration of the Hearing Examiner’s decision, but failed to send a copy of the petition to all Parties of Record as required by law on the date of petition filing. Citizens for a Better Mill Creek mobilized Parties of Record to comment on why the EIS requirement should stand, and the Hearing Examiner re-affirmed the decision. It will take Wal-Mart as long as a year to prepare the EIS. We plan to stay vigilant and examine it closely. Take-home lesson: never give up, and never believe conventional wisdom that “it’s already a done deal.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, December 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Paradise, CA. Wal-Mart Submits Plan To Pave Over Paradise
Joni Mitchell may never have set foot in Paradise, California, but her warning that someone would “pave Paradise, and put up a parking lot,” certainly resonates now for one small California community. The town of Paradise, which was incorporated in 1979, has the motto, “May you find Paradise to be all its name implies.” The town depicts itself as entering “an exciting and dynamic era as a small-sized city.” Struggling over its identity, Paradise says “we are predominately a bedroom community that values its small town heritage,” but, at the same time, “we recognize the necessity to strengthen and diversify our local business economy.”
Paradise is locked into a battle over sales tax “leakage” into nearby Chico. In 2001, a retail developer, FHK, submitted initial plans to develop Paradise’s Gateway with a retail project. There were rumors that the shopping center would include a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In 2004, the citizen’s group Save Our Gateway became concerned with the site’s wastewater capacity and the safe and healthy disposal of sewage and runnoff from the site. At that point, legal action was taken to stop the project until the issues were resolved. In January 2007, the State Court of Appeals found that the existing plans for the Skyway Plaza did not have adequate wastewater capacity for the proposed size and uses. The project was going to generate 28,000 gallons of wastewater, but could only dispose of 12,000 gallons. The project would need to be scaled back. In June 2007, FHK sold the land to Wal-Mart, and by November of 2007, new plans had been submitted to the town. There already is a Wal-Mart in Chico 10 miles away.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, December 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
California Site Fight: “Save Oakley Now”
Growing Opposition to Wal-Mart’s Move to Oakley [KCBS (Calif.)] 
Wal MartOAKLEY, Calif. (KCBS) —A group opposed to Wal-Mart opening a mega store in Oakley is gathering signatures to keep the big box store out of the East Bay town.
The group, Save Oakley Now, believes opening a 230,000 square foot store would create traffic congestion, drive out small businesses, and attract crime to the area, according to spokesman Bob Caughron.
Oakley Vice Mayor Bruce Connelley has not decided whether to support Wal-Mart’s move, but he said it would generate much needed revenue for the town.
The Wal-Mart proposal is in the environmental review process. If approvals are granted, the store could open 2009.
Posted by Andrew Yonki on Tuesday, December 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
California Site Fight: Signatures Gathered in Oakley
Group stands up to Wal-Mart [Contra Costa Times] 
OAKLEY: Members fear big-box store will increase crime and traffic congestion, hurt small businesses
A community group opposed to Wal-Mart has gathered 1,000 signatures and counting from Oakley residents against a supercenter proposal.
Save Oakley Now members have said that the proposed 230,000-square-foot big-box store would bring crime, low-paying jobs, poverty, traffic congestion and small business closure to the growing city.If approved by the City Council early next year, the store would be open 24 hours and sell groceries and general merchandise and would include a seasonal garden center. The new Wal-Mart would become an anchor tenant in the future River Oaks Crossing shopping center on the north side of Main Street.
Save Oakley Now leader Bob Caughron said he has been fighting area Wal-Mart proposals for a decade. He is a former member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union and worked for Lucky for 39 years.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Monday, December 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
California Site Fight: Wal-Mart Plan Submitted
Wal-mart submits plan [Paradise Post] 
Wal-Mart has submitted its application to develop retail stores on the vacant property on Skyway west of its intersection with the Skyway crossroad to the Town of Paradise.
Town staff, in reviewing the application, is likely to determine it is incomplete according to Assistant Community Development Director Craig Baker. The town received the application on Nov. 14 and about a week later the Community Development Department sent the packet of information to several town departments including engineering, onsite, police, fire, the Paradise Irrigation District, LAFCO, Butte County Development Services, PG&E, business and housing, the assistant town manager, the projects coordinator, and the Town Council. Baker said California state law allows for a 30-day review process.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Monday, December 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart won’t build Mill Creek superstore
Wal-Mart won’t build Mill Creek superstore [Seattle Times] 
Wal-Mart has scuttled plans to build one of its massive supercenter stores in Mill Creek after local residents raised concerns that it would harm the environment.
The company also has delayed two other Snohomish County stores due to a shift in strategy at the Bentonville, Ark.-based company.
Wal-Mart said it still plans to put a supercenter in South Snohomish County — but not at the hotly contested Mill Creek site.
Wal-Mart’s retreat from Mill Creek, originally reported Friday in the Herald newspaper in Everett, proves that communities don’t have to “put up with sprawl. You can do better,” said resident Karen Lowe, a member of Citizens for a Better Mill Creek, which formed in 2005 to block the proposed Wal-Mart.
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Posted by Andrew Yonki on Monday, December 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Corpus Christi, TX. Wal-Mart Creating Double Trouble For Neighbors
If you motor down South Padre Island Drive in Corpus Christi, Texas you will pass by Wal-Mart supercenter #470. If you keep on cruising down South Padre Island Drive, you’ll also find a Wal-Mart Discount store # 1494. For a major city with 286,000 people, you may say two Wal-Marts is not enough. Wal-Mart agrees, and in fact, they are pushing two new stores at once in Corpus Christi---but one of them has run into some flak. Some Corpus Christi residents strongly object to residential land being rezoned commercial for another Wal-Mart. A group called Moms Against Wal-Mart (where are the Dads?) who live on the Southside of Corpus Christi met yesterday to plan a strategy for preventing a Wal-Mart supercenter from sprawling in the middle of their residential neighborhood. The homeowners in the Timbergate neighborhood say traffic already is a nightmare, and a project the scale of this supercenter definitely will kick up traffic, boost crime, and lower property values. The next confrontation point in the process is before the City Council on December 18th. According to the Caller-Times newspaper, Wal-Mart got their waiver approved by the city’s Planning Commission in November, after resubmitting their plans for a rezoning months ago. Last March, Wal-Mart squeaked by the Planning Commission on a 5-3 vote favor of the project. But in June, Wal-Mart withdrew their rezoning application for South Staples Street just one day before it was scheduled to come before the City Council. Normally, if an application is pulled, the proponent has to wait a full year before resubmitting. But in this case, Wal-Mart wants special dispensation from the City to come back within six months, cutting the cooling off period in half. The city’s zoning ordinance allows a “waiver” of the one year delay.
The second time around, Wal-Mart is petitioning the city to change the land they want from its current designation of R-1B, or single family, to B-1, a neighborhood business district. Last time around Wal-Mart wanted a B-4 district, or general commercial. Although they wanted B-4 before, now they claim their superstore makes sense in a “neighborhood” commercial zone. To apply for the B-1 zone, Wal-Mart had to eliminate a tire and lube center from the mix---but that’s a minor loss on their part. City staff admitted that granting a waiver was a “rare occurrence” according to the Caller-Times. But when the Planning Commission met, they voted unanimously to approve a “rare” waiver for Wal-Mart officials to proceed with their rezoning application. They did so despite the presence of roughly 50 residents wearing t-shirts that read, “Vote No to Rezoning.” At the Planning Commission hearing, no one came forward to testify in favor of the plan. “What does it say when not a single person spoke in favor of granting the waiver and yet the commission voted unanimously to approve it?” one opponent of the plan told the Caller-Times. The Planning Commission dodged the issue, saying their vote was only to enable the issue to come to a head. One Commissioner told the crowd of opponents, “We are just providing council with a recommendation. They ultimately will make the decision.” But if the Commission had voted now, the project would have been dead for another six months.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, December 04 | 0 comments | Permalink
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