City Planners Meeting

Last night I attended my first meeting at City Hall.  The city planning commissioners were having a hearing about the possibility of WalMart building a new store in our town.  When this news broke about a month ago, a group of people got together to work on making sure that didn't happen.  And although I haven't volunteered with the group, I agree with their position - so I went to the hearing. 

Basically the panel from Walmart (their architect, engineer, real estate agent, and 2 others) put forth a proposal to build in a site zoned for a much smaller commercial business.  In order to get approval to start building the area would have to be re-zoned, and that's why they had to have approval from the city planning commissioners. 

The site in question is currently zoned for a 60,000 square foot commercial building.  WalMart wants to build a 120,000 square foot building.  (A bit of an increase, don't you think?)  Not only is this too much for the area...it's 3 blocks from our house.  I am NONE too happy with the prospect of having a 24/7 WalMart that close to an area where I run, we all ride our bikes and take walks. 

As the city staff discussed the proposal with the WalMart panel it was clear that the proposal fell WAY short of what the city required in order to re-zone the area.  WalMart's building was not up to their code, it was (admittedly) endangering neighboring wetlands, and according to MNDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) the adjoining roads would have to be completely re-done before construction takes place - a cost that WalMart was NOT going to shoulder.  At one point, one of the city commissioners questioned WalMart as to why they even brought this proposal forward?  "If I was WalMart, I'd bring my "A" game...this isn't it.  It seems you are doing nothing but wasting our time and yours."  (Thunderous applause)

And then the public hearing opened and anyone who wanted to go on the record could step forward, address the council and speak their mind about why or why not our town should have a WalMart.  And boy, was there a lot of public interested in the issue.  Not only was the entire council room packed, 2 overflow rooms were full as well.  I was in one of these rooms and we watched the proceedings on a giant video screen.  Everyone that stood up to speak spoke about why they didn't want WalMart at that location or in our town at all.  (All but 1....there WAS 1 guy who wanted WalMart....because he was the current leaseholder for their new optical store if this location got built.)  A sweet moment came when an older gentleman approached the podium and everyone started clapping immediately in our room before he even spoke.  He was the owner of ACE Hardware and had been in business in our town for 29 years.  His dad had started the business 50 years ago, and he had plans in place for his son to take over next year...but wanted to be sure that he wouldn't be put out of business by a big box store. 

The public statements were amazing.  So emotional, so many different reasons for NOT wanting this to be built, etc.  I was totally expecting to see Kevin Bacon walk to the podium, read from the Bible and explain why he just wanted to dance. 

After 90 minutes of public pleas, the council voted unanimously to deny WalMart's claim for re-zoning.  BUT it's not over....they also have a proposal with the city council at the end of November.  And then, I guess they can keep submitting proposals forever if they choose to do so.