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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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.
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Wal-Mart buys 20-acre site, plans to carry out expansion [Arizona Republic]
A year after halting plans to build a Supercenter in Cave Creek, Wal-Mart is back in business.
The retailer is planning on expanding into Cave Creek, a representative confirmed, after acquiring 20 acres southeast of Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway in May for $8 million.
There are no immediate plans for development though, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia.
Last summer, Wal-Mart pulled out of plans to build a Supercenter on the land amid forecasts of shrinking consumer spending.
The retailer withdrew a general-plan-amendment application with Cave Creek and canceled a neighborhood meeting that could have disclosed project details.
“Obviously we’re always looking for places to expand. Now we have moved forward with purchasing that land,” Garcia said.
Town Manager Usama Abujbarah has suggested a future public poll to find out how residents feel about a project, once plans come forward.
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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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Miami has always been a city on the verge, and it’s never quite clear whether it will embrace greatness or mediocrity. Drive up Biscayne Boulevard, a street with the potential for beauty and dignity, and you can see both possibility and stupidity—whole blocks given over to fast-food franchises, sprawling corner gas stations and more. It somehow seems like a high-stakes game of Mother-May-I, with baby steps forward and a giant step back.
But no backward step is bigger than the one the city is confronting now, a Wal-Mart next to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, on parking lots still owned by The Miami Herald with a sale expected to be consummated next year. Of all the bad ideas ever proffered for downtown Miami, this is the worst.
And shockingly so in a time and a place where we have already invested more than $500 million (counting the Arsht Center and the preliminary work on Museum Park) in public funds to create a downtown cultural precinct.
SEEKING URBANITY
At a time and in a place where we should be seeking to create urbanity, a Wal-Mart—even the nicest superstore ever built—would mean instant squalor.
Big-box stores may be a fact of suburban and—in far too many places—small-town life; they may be a fact of economic life. But a big-box store does not belong on this prime urban site. For decades, the civic and cultural leadership of Miami has worked to create what is still an emerging downtown cultural precinct.
The public investment in the Arsht Center is nearing $500 million (and this is not small change by any way of accounting); another $200 million in public funds is aimed at new buildings for the Miami Art Museum and the Miami Science Museum with further significant investment in improving Museum Park. Four condominium towers in varying stages of completion look out over the future park, ultimately prime locations for lovers of the arts and sciences. What is missing from the equation is the urban context—the street-level amenities that would lead one to walk a few blocks to a restaurant and the theater or lunch and an exhibition—to wit, urbanism.
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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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Wal-Mart coming to Wellsville in 2010 [Wellsville Daily Reporter (N.Y.)]
With Wal-Mart planning to open a superstore in 2010 on the site of the old municipal airport, the Wellsville Town Board Wednesday heard both unfavorable and favorable comments on the project Wednesday.
The Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development (WCRD) and Wellsville Wants Wal-Mart groups both attended the meeting. The WCRD asked Karen Sawicz, of Albion, in which Wal-Mart built a 156,000-square-foot supercenter, to address the board.
Sawicz told board members Albion had four independent grocery stores, two corporate grocery stores with pharmacies, three independent pharmacies, four independent video stores and three corporate pharmacies at the time the Wal-Mart was built,
“Within nine months of the Wal-Mart supercenter opening, the Orleans (County) community was down to one independent grocery store, two independent pharmacies, two independent video stores, two corporate grocery stores and two corporate pharmacies,” she read from her prepared remarks. “All of the independent grocery store had been open to 25 to 60 years.”
Sawicz said aside from losing grocery stores, Albion lost a way to support fund-raising efforts for its not-for profit groups.
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Group Mobilizes to Fight Cordova Wal-Mart [Memphis Daily News (Tenn.)]
It’s an old story, and it generally follows the same set of events: Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, pursues a piece of real estate that catches its interest. Opponents of the retail giant gather their forces, develop an organized campaign and attempt to stop the development of a new store in its tracks.
Sometimes Wal-Mart loses. Many times it doesn’t. But there is always another piece of land on which to build another store.
In Cordova, that oft-repeated turn of events is roughly at the midway point. Several nonprofit and community activist groups have banded together under one name and for the purpose of presenting a united front in fighting a planned 151,908-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter coming to Cordova.
Taking a standThe new group calls itself Citizens for Sustainable Growth and is comprised of groups including the Grays Creek Association, Cordova Leadership Council and Parents and Friends of Macon Hall Elementary School. At the moment, the approval process for the sleek new Wal-Mart store, which will carry the retail chain’s new logo, is in a state of suspended animation.
And the new grassroots activist group is using that to its advantage.
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Wal-Mart still on tap for Quincy [Montgomery Herald (W.V.)]
Despite delays, Wal-Mart is still planning to build a new Supercenter store in eastern Kanawha County in Quincy, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said Thursday.
“Earlier this year we did re-evaluate our growth strategy across the country, which caused a delay in virtually all projects not under construction,” said Kelly Hobbs, a senior manager for Wal-Mart Public Affairs and Government Relations.
Hobbs says construction on the Quincy Supercenter is scheduled to start in early 2009. The store would be on U.S. 60, next to Riverside High School.
“We anticipate a grand opening sometime in early 2010,” she said.
Wal-Mart’s plans are to build a $3.5 million store that will employ 250 to 300 people.
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Big-boxes, Wal-Mart continue to eye ‘underserved’ downtown Miami [Miami Today (Fla.)]
With more residents gravitating toward city centers to live closer to work, big-box retailers have begun eyeing urban areas in hopes they’ll find new customers in these downtown dwellers, experts say.
The dragging economy has led some to scale down expansion plans as shoppers pull back on spending, but Wal-Mart is in growth mode and gunning for a downtown Miami location.
The national big-box chain is considering the planned City Square retail project at 431-1451 N Bayshore Drive and 425 NE 13th St., according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Michelle Azel Belaire and Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff.
But the store is keeping its options open, Ms. Azel Belaire said.
Wal-Mart has also looked into the Omni mall complex on Biscayne Boulevard, now under renovation and set to open in 2010 with 270,000 square feet of retail.
“Wal-Mart has contacted us, but we really don’t see it as a fit for our project,” said Aaron J. Butler, a leasing broker with Comras Co., which represents the retail portion of the Omni. He declined to say why.
Still, Wal-Mart’s efforts to secure space downtown are ongoing.
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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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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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Mixed Views Over Asda Plan [Llanelli Star (U.K.)]
Shoppers have expressed mixed reaction to plans to build an Asda store at Parc Trostre Retail Park.The supermarket giant, which is owned by Walmart, is seeking planning consent to build an Asda Living store which specialises in fashion and homeware at the former Carpet Right unit. The company has reassured shoppers that it has no plans to pull its store out of Llanelli town centre.
In an application to the authority, it said the proposed store would compliment the existing supermarket, which stocks mainly food.
It said: “Asda has no other Living outlets in South West Wales, and we expect the new facility to bolster the attraction of Llanelli.”
But some residents feel if the store is approved it could add to the problems of the town centre.
Alana Williams, of Walters Road, said: “I can’t see it as a good idea. It is not nice to see the town empty.”
Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Aug13
MUTINY IN VENICE, FL?
Venice Wal-Mart project gets the critics on its side [Herald Tribune (Fla.)]
In a stunning reversal, neighborhood groups that for nearly a year fought Mike Miller’s 73-acre Wal-Mart Renaissance project on east Laurel Road showed up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to urge its approval.
After four hours of nothing but positive comments from residents, business leaders, city staff and Council members, the Council did just that and approved the project unanimously.
Miller made a number of changes since Wal-Mart first proposed building a 200,000- square-foot store, which the Planning Commission denied last fall. The Council was scheduled to hear Miller’s appeal of that denial and another issue by neighboring residents of the Venetian Golf and River Club, but both sides announced they had reached an agreement before the Council took up the issue Tuesday.
After a brief recess so City Attorney Bob Anderson could review the agreement and figure out how the Council needed to consider the issue, the Council took up the Renaissance project.
Miller agreed to 10 stipulations that included widening Laurel Road from two to four lanes in front of the development. He also agreed to: add more landscape buffering and a higher berm so the retail store was less visible from Laurel Road; move a park closer to the project’s eastern border with Willow Chase subdivision; create a faux main street with varying roofing pitches and building colors that cloak the big-box store look; add more sidewalks throughout the project and work with an advisory group of residents as outparcels of the project come forward for council approval.
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Date set for OMB hearing on Wal-Mart [Stratford Beacon Herald (Canada)]
An Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing involving Wal-Mart’s bid to set up shop in Stratford is set for Jan. 20.
The date for the hearing, which is expected to last four to six weeks, was affirmed yesterday by OMB adjudicator Karlene Hussey during a pre-hearing conference at City Hall.
Parties to the hearing, including the City of Stratford, Tanurb (Festival Marketplace), the City Centre Committee, Loblaws and Zellers agreed to a teleconference with the board Aug. 21 to work out procedural matters and to a late October conference to finalize a list of issues to be addressed.
Any new parties or participants would be identified at that time as well, said Avonwood’s legal representative Mary Bull.
Yesterday’s conference was brief, with the main contention being whether objectors to Avonwood’s proposal for a 135,000-square-foot retail project in the city’s east end (that’s excluding additional retail space and a Home Depot store) should have to cite their issues with the proposal even before the matter goes before city council or to a public meeting.
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Asda eyeing a city site? [Londonderry Sentinel (U.K.)]
SPECULATION is growing that supermarket giant Asda could open a store in Londonderry’s Waterside.
Owned by US corporation Wal Mart, the company has viewed its move into the Northern Irish marketplace as a major success since acquiring all but one of Safeway’s 13 outlets in the Province in 2005.Continued expansion has seen the retail giant’s operation in Northern Ireland grow to 16 outlets. The company has repeatedly stated its desire to have 20 stores across the country by the end of the decade.
It is now believed the north west - and Londonderry in particular - is seen as a lucrative region by the company.
The Sentinel understands Asda representatives have visited the region to assess demand and gauge the viability of potential locations.
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Variances approved for Wal-Mart [Tonawanda News (N.Y.)]
The Zoning Board of Appeals Monday approved two variances, which, along with the pending sale of an access road by the city is the last step in Wal-Mart’s plans to open in North Tonawanda.
Planners last week were satisfied with the site plan they’ve tweaked for months and their final nod now awaits only a period for input by equivalent offices at the county level, where the schematics have been forwarded.
Variances granted for the industrial lot near the corner of Erie Avenue and Niagara Falls Boulevard Monday skirt a minimum of 30 percent shade coverage - now the site is approved for roughly 15 percent — and a minimum of 1,825 parking spaces - now reduced to 915, half the original proposal.
“I think I’m in an unusual standpoint because I think that it’s a better project because of (the variances),” Marc A. Romanowski, attorney for Wal-Mart, said.
Anthony Bellomo, with FRA Engineering, explained to the board exactly what he and members of the planning commission had hashed out July 21 — that fewer trees in a staggered pattern are intended to please the eye, but any more than the current number would require a bigger parking lot and the destruction of existing foliage along the outer perimeter.
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Council defers Wal-Mart plan [Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa)]
The Iowa City Council voted at Monday night’s meeting to extend the public hearing on plans for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter to an Aug. 26 meeting.
Several people spoke in favor of and against Wal-Mart’s plans to build an 189,000-square-foot supercenter that will replace their existing building at 1001 Highway 1 W.
In order for Wal-Mart to build at the site, the council must amend a conditional zoning agreement signed when the property was first developed. The agreement states that the property should contain several smaller stores arranged similar to a shopping center.
Wally Taylor, attorney for Iowa City Stop Wal-Mart, said that the plans fail to meet the “essence” of that zoning agreement.
Taylor said the group would consider legal action if the plans are approved.
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Wal-Mart files suit in Route 65 landslide [Pittsburgh Business Times (Pa.)]
Nearly two years after the company’s plans for a Kilbuck store began to disappear in a landslide that closed down Route 65, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed suit against the former developer of the one-time Dixmont State hospital.
On Friday, the big box discounter filed suit against nearly everyone involved in the failed development project, which Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) decided against pursuing last September after ongoing deliberations with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection led it to instead re-plant the site with trees and vegetation.
Named in the lawsuit is the main developer, locally based ASC Development Inc., its principals John Atwood and Atoine Chammas, as well as ASC’s affiliated firms, Kilbuck Properties, L.P. and Kilbuck Properties L.L.C., and a number of other companies also involved in the project, ACA Engineering, Inc., Chevy Chase Construction, Inc., Penn Development Services L.P. among others.
Allegations against the development team have yet to be filed with the court. The site is located in Kilbuck Township, north of Pittsburgh.
Atwood and Chammas, principals of ASC, are now listed as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively at a company called Trinity Commercial Development Inc., according to the company’s website.
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Downtown Not Worried By Wal-Mart Expansion Plans [SooNews.com (Canada)]
Council will soon hear plans of the Canadian Sault Wal-Mart seeking permission to expand its store.
The store opened in Sault Ste. Marie in January 2003. At the time a restriction on the size of the store was implemented. Originally Wal-Mart had plans on building a 160,000 square foot store in 2002 - however with concerns raised by the Downtown Association at the time, council requested Wal-Mart reduce its size.
It did - instead building a store about 100,000 square feet in size.
Anna Boyonoski, manager of the Downtown Association says she met with Wal-Mart Canada officials to go over what they have planned.
“We don’t see an impact on the downtown with the planned expansion” Boyonski told SooNews.ca Monday.
“From our understanding, it’s primarily a grocery store that Wal-Mart is interested in”
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