Wal-Mart Tries to Block Zoning Rules

[Rose Siding]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has commissioned a poll, collected thousands of signatures for a petition and is assembling a coalition to persuade the Montgomery County Council to vote down tough proposed zoning restrictions on its biggest stores.

Wal-Mart's lobbying message: Restrictive zoning rules are anti-consumer, and they deprive shoppers of choice and convenience.

"We don't want to lose these battles," said Mia Masten, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, who said the proposed restrictions could have a ripple effect throughout Maryland, blocking the chain's expansion. "It can have a chilling effect on growth."
...
County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), a proponent of the zoning restrictions, has argued that "big box" stores would burden county streets with more traffic and take a long-term toll on the environment. Dozens of other governments, including Rockville and Alexandria, have passed restrictive zoning rules designed to slow the growth of big box stores.

Duncan's effort has won the support of the region's two biggest supermarkets, Giant Food LLC and Safeway Inc., and the union representing the supermarkets' 18,000 local workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. The chains and their unions blamed tense negotiations over their latest labor contract on escalating competition from nonunion chains such as Wal-Mart, which typically operate at lower costs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22769-2004Jul28.html

[Fovea]

1. "It can have a chilling effect on growth."

Gee, say it ain't so. It does not occur to her that some sorts of growth are malignant, and really not an improvement. If the consumer who works in a non box mart store in the small town loses his job, and takes a big pay cut to work at Wally World, what has been done for that consumer's well being?

[Massacure]

2. I hope wal mart looses.

[truthspeaker]

3. great excuse for me to post this image:

[hatrack]

4. ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

Frickin' brilliant - thank you!! ;-)

[TaleWgnDg]

5. hats off . . . brilliant!!

Wal-Mart, where employees are duped as "associates" in name only, where the employer brags that their workers "pick-up" health coverage through federal and state programs, where there's rampant gender discrimination (largest class action law suit in America's history), where the poor remain as "working poor" . . . so much for America's newest and largest employer in America !!

I wonder WHAT Henry Ford would make of all of this?

[arikara]

6. I love it!

Can I borrow it?

[BRLIB]

7. WalMart

Winning the War on Wages!

[Xithras]

8. They should do what Modesto CA did

Walmart went in to Modesto 5 or 6 years ago and wanted to plant a new supercenter on the north edge of town, and the city didn't like that idea. Since Modesto has a great law that says they can bill any developer (for homes and retail construction) for the costs of upgrading any facilities required to support that construction, they tossed WalMart a bill for nearly 15 million to do everything from widening and extending nearby roadways, to replacing a mile long sewer trunk and rebuilding an entire freeway exchange. When WalMart got the bill (due in advance, before building permits would be issued) they politely declined to build in the city and haven't been heard from since. The city has one of the smaller, older WalMarts, but probably won't ever get anything bigger.

I just wish they would enforce the law a little less selectively. North Modesto is home to tens of thousands of people living in $300k to $500k subdivisions which are only accessible by two lane roads because the city didn't bother to assess the developers for the road fees. Many residents there are now finding out that these roads (which sometimes get mile long backups at the 4 way stop signs) aren't due to be upgraded for nearly a decade and are getting pissed!

[Massacure]

9. Looks like they need more mass transit, not roads.

[Xithras]

10. Highly unlikely, residents there are mostly commuters.

Modesto actually has a fairly good bus system that runs every 30 minutes and can get you anywhere in town in less than 60, but that won't help the traffic situation on the north end of the city.

There's been talk over the last decade about extending BART to the Valley, but it's extremely unlikely that it'll ever make it all the way to Modesto (60 miles away from Dublin, the current end of the line). Every day thousands and thousands of Modestans climb into their cars and drive the 60-90 miles to their Bay Area jobs, and there is no mass transit anywhere on the horizon that will address that problem. Fixing the gridlock would require billions of $$ that simply don't exist right now (and that probably won't while we still have the Gropinator in office).

Personally, I love the fact that these people are getting so steamed over these backups. These homes are being built over some of the best agricultural land in the world, and they're being built simply so the Bay Area white collar guys can come home to their 7000 square foot McMansions with zero lot line yards. Let them wither }(

[customerserviceguy]

11. Yes, but have you seen what people buy at Mal-Wart?

How they gonna carry a 75 pound sack of Ol' Roy dog food home on the bus??!!!

Seriously, in my experience, what Mal-Wart wants, Mal-Wart gets. They were able to "swap" wetlands in a town I lived in a couple of years ago, they created "new" wetlands to be able to fill in "old" ones. I wonder if the ducks noticed?

Local cities just smell those sales tax dollars, and bend over.