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Back in September the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, and six nearby residents filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Orange County. They alleged that the country “supervisors failed to comply with the county’s comprehensive plan. The suit also claims the county’s zoning ordinance is invalid because it fails to comply with state laws requiring such ordinances to protect historic sites, and there were procedural defects in the approval process.”

Today, the court heard the first arguments of the case.

Here’s a quick excerpt from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s press release outlining their central arguments (it was emailed to me, so I don’t have a link):

“The County has an affirmative responsibility to protect those historic resources under Virginia law and under the County’s own Comprehensive Plan for development. Yet, the Board ignored the concerns, objections and offers of assistance from the Governor and the Speaker of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 250 Civil War experts, and others.

The Battle of the Wilderness, where 26,000 men were killed or wounded in May of 1864, may not be as well known as Gettysburg or Antietam, but it marked a milestone in the Civil War. It was the first time generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met in battle. The site of the proposed 140,000-square-foot Wal-Mart superstore, along with 100,000 square feet of additional big box commercial development, stands on unprotected land within the historic boundaries of this battlefield.  It is also immediately adjacent to the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, which was established by Congress in 1927. In a split vote, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a special use permit allowing the 240,000-square-foot project to proceed on August 25, 2009. This project poses a considerable risk of destruction and increased commercialization of a nationally significant and highly vulnerable historic site.”

We’ll certainly keep our eyes on the case. In the mean time, you can check out the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website here and read more about the case here.

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On January 29, 2009--just about a year ago--Sprawl-Busters reported that Haywood, North Carolina officials had a big hole to fill that once was a Wal-Mart discount store on Route 74 in the Clyde area.

The vacant Wal-Mart has been there since a Wal-Mart supercenter, with 188,494 s.f., opened in Waynesville on October 1, 2008---just eight miles down the road from the original location in Clyde. The Wal-Mart discount store in Clyde that was closed was built in 1990, and is 116,061 s.f. The Smoky Mountain News reported that what was once a bustling retail market and taxpaying property was now slated to go off the tax rolls entirely and become the new home of the Haywood County Department of Health and Social Services. 

One year later, the deal has still not jelled. According to the News, Commissioners are still considering the old Wal-Mart site. The county wants to buy the 20 year old Wal-Mart because its the cheapest option they have, making it a ‘bargain’ for the taxpayers, Commissioner Mark Swanger told the News. The current DSS building was constructed in the 1920s. “It would require millions in renovations, heating, air, roof windows and you still have an inadequate space for doing business,” Swanger explained. The DSS building needs a new roof, windows, and electrical wiring. “We could go on and on about what it would cost us, we would still have an old building,” another Commissioner noted. A new building is also out of the question, the Commissioners say, costing as much as $30 million. So taking over the dead Wal-Mart makes financial sense.

The Wal-Mart property itself will need a lot of work. It was described by the News as a “gaping retail shell.” But at least it has a roof and a parking lot. The County says if they put a DSS office into the building, it will act as an anchor for the shopping center and stimulate adjacent businesses. Over the past ten years, the county has been building a new Justice Center, a new jail, and a remodeled courthouse. So officials don’t have much capital left to spend on the new DSS space. “I suppose it has been just a matter of priorities,” Swanger explained.

Negotiations with Wal-Mart Realty have been going on for at least a year. “If we don’t do something now, it’s going to cost us much more in the future to buy property and start building,” one Commissioner pointed out. If the county does move into the building, the dead Wal-Mart would be subdivided between the DSS offices and the Tractor Supply Company, which is also in negotiations for part of the Wal-Mart building. When Wal-Mart left a gaping hole in the strip mall where it was located to move to the other side of town in 2008, Commissioners began thinking about using the vacant store. They decided not to pursue it at the time given the county’s economic situation with the recession.

At that time Commissioners were seeking a federal loan of up to $11 million to purchase and renovate the Wal-Mart. The area had lost a Goody’s clothing store, which was one of many casualties of the big box retailers. Goody’s left behind a storefront in a strip mall in Waynesville. Home Depot canceled plans at the last minute to open a new store in Waynesville, leaving a hole next to the new big box retail complex where Super Wal-Mart moved to. Last year at this time, the Commissioners’ economic development staff said, “Right now, there’s not a whole lot of retailers that are looking to expand. Everybody’s pretty cautious right now. The county’s interest (in the Wal-Mart property) is very encouraging.” Commissioners said in January of 2009 that money from the federal stimulus package could help finance the purchase of the Wal-Mart building, but it was unclear how long it would take for the money to trickle down to local governments.

What you can do: There are currently 9 Wal-Mart “dark stores” in North Carolina. Wal-Mart has several private real estate brokers trying to sell these properties. The official Wal-Mart line is that its Realty division has no problem disposing of these properties, but in many situations, these large “ghost boxes” are hard to remarket because there are very few businesses looking for such large buildings. Wal-Mart has left hundreds of ‘dark stores’ in its wake as it moves through small town America, causing local officials to worry about being stuck with huge, empty stores that cannot easily be recycled.

One has to wonder what officials in Clyde would have said in 1990 if Wal-Mart had told them that in less than 20 years their proposed discount store would be closed and left for the county to buy. For the town of Clyde, this represents a major loss of revenue. The County will not pay property taxes on the building, and there will be little sales tax from the Tractor Supply Company compared to a Wal-Mart store. The big winner is Wal-Mart, which will sell off its dead store, and make more money at its superstore 8 miles away. This leapfrog development is a perfect example of the sprawl that happens when there is no regional planning. In this case, Waynesville took away Clyde’s store, when the Clyde store could have been reformatted to become a superstore. Wal-Mart today is building superstores that are 99,000 s.f. The Clyde Wal-Mart was 116,061 s.f. No relocation was necessary in the first place, and Clyde’s store was clearly meant for Waynesville and surrounding towns, because Clyde’s tiny population could never support a discount store on its own.

Readers are urged to email Haywood County Commission Chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick at with the following message: “Dear Chairman Kirkpatrick, Please don’t use federal or county tax dollars to buy an empty Wal-Mart that bad planning created. Clyde and Waynesville should never have allowed Wal-Mart to abandon its ‘old’ store in the first place, just to move to bigger quarters 8 miles away. They could have reformatted their existing store in Clyde into a superstore, and today you’d have no dead store to worry about. But the idea of using federal stimulus money to write a check to Wal-Mart—which doesn’t need any more federal subsidies---is irresponsible. Instead, call over to the new Wal-Mart superstore manager, Jerry Presley at (828) 452-5090 and ask him to write to the corporate central office in Bentonville, Arkansas, asking Wal-Mart to donate the land and building to the county. It’s the least they can do to repay the county and the town of Clyde for leaving you with an empty building that could have been avoided in the first place. Don’t subsidize Wal-Mart with tax dollars---ask them for a charitable donation that they can take as a tax write-off.”

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The fate of the Wilderness battlefield hangs in the balance of a single vote.

For many, it’s hard to believe that a fields which once echoed with artillery fire from 12 pound howitzer cannons drawn by wooden carriages, may be replaced by metal shopping carts packed with howling children.

After months of public debate and passionate opposition, this classic clash between history and modernity will ultimately be decided by a handful of Country Supervisors in the privacy of their chambers.

Wal-Mart is one vote away from building a Supercenter near a famed Civil War battlefield that preservationists contend is already endangered. The proposal is headed to the public Monday night and county supervisors could vote after the hearing, provided it doesn’t run too late. Supervisors, who are believed to be leaning toward approving the proposal, are also scheduled to meet Tuesday night....

Preservationists including more than 250 historians, congressmen from Texas and Vermont and a handful of celebrities have urged Wal-Mart to find a different location in Orange County. Earlier this month, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and House Speaker William J. Howell also urged Wal-Mart and the county to find an alternative site. They called the Wilderness “supremely important” among Virginia’s many Civil War battlefields.

In an effort to cover all their bases, Wal-Mart is exhausting all their resources in order to sway public opinion toward approving the building site; a grueling effort that has also produced political casualties.

Last week, Wal-Mart sent out 4,200 mailers urging Orange County residents to show up to Monday’s hearing.

UPDATE: In an outrageous last ditch effort, last night’s meeting was canceled due the intervention of Wal-Mart officials. Mostly likely fearing a loss, Wal-Mart now has more time to rally support for their building site.

Wal-Mart personnel found that one of two legally required notices advertising a May 21 public hearing before the county Planning Commission had not been published by the local weekly newspaper. County officials were notified of the problem yesterday morning and decided to cancel last night’s hearing “out of an abundance of caution,” acting County Administrator Julie Jordan said.

“We regret the inconvenience to everyone,” she said, “but the proper publication requirements were not met.”

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Cynics will tell you that Americans have the best politics money can buy. But Wal-Mart’s money doesn’t always buy support—especially in a controversial vote that pits history against sprawl.

Wal-Mart says its plan to build a 138,000 s.f. superstore near an historic Civil War battlefield near Fredericksburg, Virginia is an example of smart growth. The giant retailer was on the defensive this past week, when Virginia Governor Tim Kaine reached across the political aisle to his rival, Republican House Speaker Bill Howell, to jointly write a letter to the Orange County, Virginia Board of Supervisors urging them to work together with Wal-Mart and state officials to find a less intrusive site for the superstore.

In response to the Governor’s letter, Wal-Mart officials defended their plan. The company’s director of public affairs sent an email to the local media which pointed out that the land is commercially zoned, and that “more than 5,000 residential homes and other compatible commercial development are already built out dramatically closer to the preserved boundaries of the Wilderness Battlefield than our project.” But the company went even further, suggesting that “this project presents the unique opportunity to bring the interests of battlefield preservation and smart development effectively into balance, and that is precisely what we have accomplished with our current proposal.”

Wal-Mart did not explain how a 51 acre development with a store on one level more than twice the size of a football field and an enormous parking lot was an example of “smart development.”

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Great news out of Virginia regarding the proposed Wilderness Battlefield site. In a letter dated July 13th, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) and House of Delegates Speaker William Howell (R) sent a letter to the Orange County Board of Supervisors encouraging them to choose an alternative site for a new Wal-Mart.

This isn’t the first bipartisan effort we’ve seen to derail Wal-Mart’s plan to build at Wilderness. In January, Democratic and Republican congressmen from Texas and Vermont joined to tell Wal-Mart to find somewhere else to build. Hopefully Wal-Mart - and Orange County supervisors - get the message.

From CWPT:

Governor Kaine and Speaker Howell Urge Orange County to Move Walmart Superstore Away from Battlefield

In a bipartisan letter to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) and House of Delegates Speaker William Howell (R) jointly urged the county to reconsider plans to locate a Walmart supercenter on the Wilderness Battlefield. The letter, addressed to Orange County Board Chairman Lee Frame and dated July 13, 2009, emphasizes the Commonwealth’s commitment to historic preservation and the need to bring all interests together to resolve the controversy. The heart of the message states: “[W]e strongly encourage your Board to work closely with Wal-Mart to find an appropriate alternative site for the proposed retail center in the vicinity of the proposed site yet situated outside the boundaries of Wilderness Battlefield and out of the view of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.”

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To the right is Millswood eighth-grader Samantha Titus. She lives in California, and this week she had the chance to flex her arguing muscles in a debate competition at the Lodi Boys and Girls Club. The topic? If you guessed Wal-Mart - and this IS the Wal-Mart Watch blog - then commence patting yourself on the back.

Titus was one of about 25 middle school students to participate in the debate tackling whether the city of Lodi needs a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter - a battle that has frequently found its way onto our Battlemart Blog, as you can here, here, here and here.

Personally, I think this is a great story, and not just because those students arguing against the development so TOTALLY kicked butt. (Actually, all sides gave well-presented arguments, with those for offering job creation and convenience while opponents pointed out negative environmental impacts, poor wages and the effect on local business.) The real winners were all the students involved, who learned how to research an issue in depth while picking up a little thing called self confidence in the process:

Jeisen Elemen has noticed that the team of three boys and two girls that he coaches are less nervous with public speaking..."They were very quiet,” Elemen said. “Now, they are coming up and speaking out in front of a live audience,” he said.

And how did the students feel about the experience? Take us home, Samantha Titus:

“We’re teenagers. We like to fight with people,” said Titus. “We fight with our parents, so we should use our ability to debate.”

Local students debate Wal-Mart issue [Lodi News-Sentinel]

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Yesterday, we told you that hundreds of people were expected to show up at hearing at a public hearing last night regarding the ‘Wilderness Wal-Mart’—which would make it the most heavily attended public meeting in the history of the county.

Channel 19 News in Charlottesville, Virginia, had the story. We now graciously share that story with you.

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Below, Al Norman writes on the State of Massachusetts’ multi-million dollar health care handout to Wal-Mart, also published on our Battlemart Blog:

Two years ago, Wal-Mart workers and their children cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts $7.2 million for subsidized health care. A new report released this past week shows that this tax subsidy has more than doubled to $15.5 million. In the middle of one of the worst budget crises in state history, health are welfare for large national chain stores are a drag on the state and federal taxpayer.

On February 12, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that an annual report released by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, revealed that state taxpayers in the Commonwealth spent $7,223,580.77 to provide subsidized health care insurance for Wal-Mart workers—the highest cost any employer shifted to the state. The study, “The Use of Public Health Assistance in Massachusetts in FY 2006: Employers Who Have Fifty or More Employees Using MassHealth or the Uncompensated Care Pool,” is the third such analysis of employers who have 50 more workers using public health assistance. A state law passed in 2004 requires the state to produce such studies. The report released in 2007 covered the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.

The analysis estimates that in FY 2006, a total of $234.2 million in public funds were spent on health care for employees and their dependents working for employers who had 50 or more employees subsidized by two major state health care programs: Medicaid and the Uncompensated Care Pool. The state reports estimates that a total of 6,070 Wal-Mart employees and dependents are costing state taxpayers $7.223 million a year. Of that total, 1,038 Wal-Mart employees used the Uncompensated Care Pool, 2,079 Wal-Mart employees were on Medicaid, and 2,953 dependents of Wal-Mart employees, mostly children, used benefits paid for by Medicaid. The cost of Wal-Mart dependents alone came to $4,328,155. According to Wal-Mart, the retailer had 10,785 employees in Massachusetts. Using the FY 2006 figure of 3,117 Wal-Mart workers on Medicaid and UCP, that means at least 29% of Wal-Mart’s workforce in the Baystate received their health care subsidized by the public.

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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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Don’t box us in: A Wal-Mart in the emerging cultural center would be a giant step backward for Miami [Miami Herald]

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 stand

The 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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