Bakersfield, CA. Back to the Beginning
This week a new chapter unfolds in the fate of two Walmart-Mart Super-center stores proposed for Bakersfield. The projects have been stalled for years by opposition and court battles.
On Thursday, both projects go to the Bakersfield Planning Commission for a public hearing and a vote on the new Environmental Impact Report. Monday, the commission had a meeting to get ready for the hearing.
One of the Walmart-Mart Super-center projects sits half-finished at Panama Lane, east of Highway 99. The other project never even got started—at Gosford between Pacheco and Harris.
First there were heated public meetings packed with opponents, then a group called Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control challenged the projects in court. In 2004, a judge ordered an entire new Environmental Impact Report.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Atascadero, CA. Wal-Mart Plans Advance
Wal-Mart back with new plan [San Luis Obispo Tribune (Calif.)]
Wal-Mart and developer The Rottman Group have taken the first official steps toward building a more than $100 million retail hub on Atascadero’s north side.
A representative for the two firms submitted plans late Monday afternoon for a 195,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter and adjacent Annex shopping center at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real, city and corporate officials told the local Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
The move came more than six months after the Arkansas-based chain filed — then abruptly withdrew — plans for a 236,000- square-foot store at the same site. Company officials said they decided to wait until Santa Barbara-based Rottman finished its plans for development across the street.
Debate over the projects has raged for nearly two years as residents consider how to boost Atascadero’s lagging sales tax revenue.
Critics have turned out in force at public forums and Atascadero City Council meetings to describe what they say are Wal-Mart’s predatory business tactics and substandard working conditions.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Redlands, CA. Citizens Protest Wal-Mart
Crowd protests Super Wal-Mart plans [Redlands Daily Facts (Calif.)]
Although there were other items on the Environmental Review Committee’s agenda Monday morning, only one topic was on the mind of the large audience that filled the City Council Chambers: the building of a Super Wal-Mart.
Item 5 on the agenda was the public scoping meeting on Redlands Crossing, which would be anchored by an approximately 235,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart. The project will be bounded on the west by Tennessee Street and Interstate 210, on the east by Karon Street, on the north by San Bernardino Avenue and on the south by a future extension of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The city retained Michael Brandman Associates to prepare the environmental impact report, and project manager Jason Brandman was on hand to give a PowerPoint presentation on what creating the report will entail.
According to Brandman, among the environmental topics that will be analyzed are aesthetics, air quality, land use, planning and noise.
“These will be very exhaustive and detailed technical studies,” he said. “We are here to comply with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) objectives, which is to give unbiased, objective information to decision makers, agencies and the public.” The report is not expected to be finished and presented until next fall.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Galt, CA. City Mulls Cap on Size As Wal-Mart Approaches
There are four Wal-Marts within 19 miles of Galt, California, a community whose motto is “planning for the future.” According to the Lodi News-Sentinel, Wal-Mart has plans for Galt’s future, even though there is already a Wal-Mart in Lodi 9 miles away. Galt is located in Northern California, in the heart of the Delta Recreation Area. “We offer affordable housing,” the city says on its website, “and a small town atmosphere perfect for raising young families as well as a great opportunity for new businesses. We are well known in Northern California for our Galt Market held every Tuesday and Wednesday. The Galt Market is known for the great deals on fresh fruits and vegetables, clothing, home furnishings and much more.” The “small town atmosphere” and local market in Galt seem to be incompatible with a big box retail store---and it is.
In fact, the proposal from Wal-Mart will be the first major test of the city’s big box law, which is still under review. Wal-Mart applied last week to build a 132,000 s.f. store at Twin Cities Road. This is the second site that Wal-Mart has scouted in Galt, when the company began researching sites back in 2005. The City Council in Galt has delayed its review of a proposed ordinance, but the city’s director of Community Development told the News-Journal he believes the new ordinance will apply to the Wal-Mart application---if the ordinance is adopted. The law under consideration would ban any retail stores larger than 140,000 s.f., if it has more than 10% of its interior retail space devoted to non-taxable goods, like groceries. This is the so-called “California cap” model that applies to food stores, but leaves other warehouse and home improvement big boxes unaffected. The proposed law also requires stores between 100,000 to 139,999 s.f. to apply for a conditional use permit. Developers would also have to produce impact studies on the project’s effect on crime, urban decay, the economy and the project’s general compatibility within a neighborhood. City Commissioners have said they want more time to review the proposed ordinance, and will take up the new zoning plan at their September 27th meeting, but will not vote on it until later in the fall. A Wal-Mart spokesman encouraged City Commissioners to look favorably on his company’s proposal, and estimated the store would “create” 450 “new” jobs.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, September 18 | 0 comments | Permalink
Galt, CA. Proposal Tests “Big Box” Ordinance
Wal-Mart eyes new store site in Galt [Lodi News-Sentinel (Calif.)]
The city may have found its first test case for its proposed “big box ordinance”: Wal-Mart.
The retail giant applied last week to build a 132,000 square-foot store at Twin Cities Road and Fermoy Way.
It’s the second Galt site Wal-Mart has eyed in the past two years.
They had previously looked at a spot near Boessow Road and Highway 99.
Community Development Director Curt Campion said Thursday night any big box rules — if eventually approved by the City Council — will likely apply to Wal-Mart’s new application.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 17 | 0 comments | Permalink
Oakley, CA. Study Shows Wal-Mart Would Hurt Local Business
Study says Wal-Mart would hurt Oakley retailers [Contra Costa (Calif.) Times]
Several supermarkets and a major retail store could close in the area if Wal-Mart is allowed to open an Oakley Supercenter.
Wal-Mart is proposing a 24-hour discount Supercenter with up to 230,000 square feet, including groceries, general merchandise and a seasonal garden center.If approved by the Oakley City Council, the new Wal-Mart would be an anchor tenant in the future River Oaks Crossing shopping center on the north side of Main Street.
An impact study released this week, though, indicates that Oakley’s CentroMart and Raley’s grocery stores might close due to Wal-Mart’s presence. Oakley only has three grocery stores at this time, but Safeway is supposed to open a store at Laurel Road and O’Hara Avenue.
“The impact on communities from large retailers such as Wal-Mart has clearly been established across the country,” said Lucky Communications Director Alicia Rockwell. “It isn’t going to be any surprise that they will probably put some stores out of business.”
The former Albertsons and now Lucky store in Oakley is less likely to face closure than Raley’s or CentroMart, according to the studies. As its neighbor in the Oakley Town Center, Rite-Aid is predicted to survive as well.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 17 | 0 comments | Permalink
Albany, OR. Developer Eyes Wal-Mart
Developer: Wal-Mart is just one possibility [Albany Democrat Herald]
Wal-Mart is a possibility as the anchor tenant in a proposed Albany shopping center, but so are other retailers, according to a spokesman for the developer.
Flavio Volpe made that comment today. He speaks for SmartCentres, the Canadian company planning to develop a 25-acre shipping center site at the southwest corner of Santiam Highway and Goldfish Farm Road.
A preliminary site plan shows the center with one 190,000-square-foot anchor store and four smaller ones, according to the city planners who met with the applicants last Wednesday.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, September 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Labor Relations Problems in Nevada
What’s disgusting? Union busting. What’s outrageous? Poverty wages.
Wal-Mart breaks the law, gets punished, wins anyway [Las Vegas Sun]
Here is how Wal-Mart, at a cost of a couple of thousand dollars, illegally beat back an attempt to unionize its stores in Nevada:
Seven years ago, as Wal-Mart corporate executives proclaimed Nevada ground zero in an attempt to battle unionizing the giant retailer, three workers at Wal-Mart stores in Southern Nevada took the first steps toward organizing. Avis Hammond, Norine Sorensen and Diana Griego talked to fellow employees about the union and passed out fliers in front of stores, activities clearly allowed under federal labor laws.
Management stepped in. The three employees were told to stop. They were questioned, threatened and insulted, according to later findings by the government. Wal-Mart stripped one worker of his union fliers and denied another a promotion.
The union seeking to represent workers asked for help from the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law. The workers wanted Wal-Mart to act within the law so they could continue to try to organize.
That was in 2000.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, September 14 | 52 comments | Permalink
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