CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART DRAFT EIR IS OUT
Wal-Mart draft EIR is out [Orange County (Calif.) Register]
GARDEN GROVE - A much-awaited draft environmental impact report on the proposed two-story, 170,000 square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Chapman Avenue is now available for public view.
The report, which is available at City Hall and on the city’s Web site, http://www.ci.garden-grove.ca.us, states that the project would have no significant impact on the community’s general environment or air quality.
The report became available for public review June 15 and will be available through July 31.
The project has already drawn criticism from national anti-Wal-Mart groups as well as local merchants on Main Street, who fear that the Supercenter would put them out of business.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Tuesday, June 26 | 0 comments | Permalink
OREGON SITE FIGHT: FENDING OFF THE BIG BOX
The little guys share tactics for fending off the big box [The Oregonian]
Dawn Tryon thinks she might be fighting Wal-Mart.
She can’t be sure—there’s no store name attached to an application to build a giant retail space on Northeast 82nd Avenue, on a former gravel pit and landfill near Madison High School in Portland.
But her group, Save Madison South Committee, has already talked strategy with Wal-Mart opponents in other parts of the Portland area. She’s looking for ways that a group of neighbors could tackle the plans of the world’s largest retailer—one that has more than 4,000 U.S. stores and $345 billion in net sales last year.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Tuesday, June 26 | 0 comments | Permalink
OREGON SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART PEACES OUT
Bye, bye Wal-Mart [Gresham Outlook]
At a festive gathering at McMenamins Edgefield on Friday night, June 22, neighborhood groups and activist residents celebrated Wal-Mart’s decision to abandon plans for a store at a busy intersection in southwest Gresham.
Celebrators savored besting the nation’s largest company after a nearly three-year fight over a supercenter at Southeast Powell Boulevard and 182nd Avenue. Wal-Mart announced Wednesday, June 20, it would not appeal the rejection of its application by Gresham Hearings Officer Joe Turner. The company could have taken the matter back to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Monday, June 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
Gresham, OR. Wal-Mart Finally Gives Up The Ghost
They’re celebrating tonight in Gresham, Oregon. Residents who fought a Wal-Mart superstore are gathering tonight at a place called McMenamins Edgefield. “We’ll gather under the water tower,” said a note from Gresham First. “A wide variety of food and drink is available, and kids are welcome. Please bring your family, friends and neighbors to this community celebration! Yesterday’s Oregonian newspaper explains the cause for celebration: Wal-Mart has announced that it will not appeal a ruling by a Hearing Officer in Gresham that cited unreconciled traffic problems with a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter. So there will be on Wal-Mart on 182nd Avenue. Thus ends a battle that Sprawl-Busters first wrote about on January 27, 2005, two and a half years ago.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said that Wal-Mart has chosen not appeal a recent rejection of the proposal by a city hearings officer. “While disappointed by the decision, a long protracted legal battle is not in anyone’s best interests,” Wal-Mart said in a news release. “Our obligation and our commitment to our customers is to find a site that works for them as well as for the city.” Gresham hearings officer Joe Turner ruled that Wal-Mart’s traffic study still did not resolve traffic problems near the site. The Oregonian quoted one activist as saying, “It’s the outcome I wanted. It’s the outcome that the majority of people that I have spoken to wanted, but deep in their hearts, they thought they didn’t have a chance. I hope this gives courage to other neighborhood associations and to people who don’t want something that doesn’t fit in their neighborhood to stick with it and fight.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, June 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: MEMO SAYS WAL-MART MAY LEAD TO CRIME
Police Chief Memo Says Wal-Mart Store Will Lead To [Daily News (Solano County, Calif.)]
SUISUN - A community group here has obtained an internal document in which the Suisun City police chief admits that the “commercial activity” of a Wal-Mart Supercenter has the “potential...for increased vehicle and residential burglaries” in the area.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Friday, June 22 | 0 comments | Permalink
OREGON SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART GIVING UP AND GIVING IN
Wal-Mart gives up on 182nd, Powell site [The Oregonian via Oregonlive.com]
Wal-Mart is throwing in the towel on efforts to build a combination grocery and discount store at the intersection of Powell Boulevard and 182nd Avenue in Gresham.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jennifer Holder said Wednesday that the company would not appeal a recent rejection of the proposal by a city hearings officer. It was the latest of several obstacles the retailer has faced in its 21/2-year struggle to build a supercenter at the site, and of several defeats in siting metro-area stores.
“While disappointed by the decision, a long protracted legal battle is not in anyone’s best interests,” Holder said in a news release. “Our obligation and our commitment to our customers is to find a site that works for them as well as for the city.”
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Thursday, June 21 | 0 comments | Permalink
WASHINGTON SITE FIGHT: SEEKING AN EXTENSION
Wal-Mart seeking two-year extension [Spooner (Wash.) Advocate]
The Washburn County Executive Committee has recommended approving Wal-Mart’s request for four, six-month extensions on the purchase of 35 acres of county property at Cty. Hwy. H and Hwy. 53, where Wal-Mart proposes to build a 153,000-square-foot Supercenter.
Currently Wal-Mart is under a six-month extension, its fourth, that expires Aug. 12.
The full board of the Washburn County Board of Supervisors meeting next Tuesday will have the opportunity to approve or deny the two-year extension, proposed in four, six-month chunks.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Thursday, June 21 | 0 comments | Permalink
CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: FINAL RULING EXPECTED
Final ruling expected on Hercules Wal-Mart in September [San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News]
HERCULES, Calif.—Following years of fighting between residents, politicians and Wal-Mart executives, a final ruling is expected in September on whether the discount retailer can build a relatively modest store in Hercules.
Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Judith Craddick affirmed an earlier tentative ruling this month and invalidated a city ordinance that was used to acquire a tract owned by Wal-Mart and block the retailer’s development plans.The ordinance, which the City Council adopted last September, attempted to extend the city’s eminent domain authority in the so-called Dynamite Project Area for 12 years. The name refers to a dynamite plant that closed several decades ago, leaving a blighted landscape.
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Posted by Beth Gostanian on Tuesday, June 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
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