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Click here for letters to the Rohnert Park City Council opposed to the Wal-Mart supercenter from the the Living Wage Coalition, Sonoma County Conservation Action, the Sierra Club Sonoma Group, the North Bay Labor Council, Supervisor Shirley Zane, and Assemblyman Jared Huffman.
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http://www.watchsonomacounty.com/2010/07/cities/is-courtoom-next-stop-in-wal-mart-fight/
Is Courtroom Next Stop in Wal-Mart Fight?
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
July 31, 2010
by Jeremy Hay
A day after the Rohnert Park City Council gave the go ahead for the controversial expansion of Wal-Mart, divisions remained razor sharp over the proposed supercenter.
The council late Thursday overturned - and sharply rebuked - an April vote by the city Planning Commission, which had unanimously rejected the application by Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, to add a grocery to its Redwood Drive store.
"The Planning Commission didn't do their job and shame on them," Councilman Joe Callinan said in supporting the supercenter near the end of a 5 ?-hour meeting that drew hundreds of people to City Hall. The commission had worried about the effect on other Rohnert Park grocery stores and said the expansion would be inconsistent with a section of the city's general plan that calls for encouraging supermarkets to be "close to where people live."
But the council, in a 4-1 vote with Councilman Jake Mackenzie opposed, said the project's benefits were greater than its potential negative impacts and the project was consistent with city land use policies.
"We need to uphold the law, we need to apply the law, and we need to allow this project to move forward. I believe that not to do so would be un-American," said Councilwoman Amie Breeze.
Mayor Pam Stafford and Vice Mayor Gina Belforte also voted in favor, saying the law compelled them to approve the project and the store would boost the city's economy.
In reacting to the decision, Rohnert Park residents and county labor leaders, as well as Wal-Mart's own representatives, echoed the wide philosophical chasm evident at Thursday's meeting. John Borba, the Planning Commission chairman, said Friday, "I think they made the wrong decision." Responding to Callinan's comment, he said, "Look, Joe's my friend, and he's a good guy, and he's entitled to his opinion, but I completely disagree.
Wal-Mart critics promised to continue their opposition.
"We have not seen the end of this by any means," said Marty Bennett, co-chairman of the Living Wage Coalition, part of a loose coalition of groups that opposed the project. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said opponents trying to still block the project would be acting against the city's best interests.
"It will be very unfortunate if special interests did delay the process even further," said spokeswoman Angela Stoner. "They've planned for economic development in Rohnert Park, and they want the project to move forward as quickly as possible."
Foes of a Wal-Mart planned for Roseland won a courtroom challenge of the Santa Rosa City Council's approval of the store, leading the company to end its bid in 2009, five years after announcing its plans.
Opponents of the Rohnert Park expansion said legal action was being considered.
"All options are on the table, including a lawsuit, and what we're going to be doing is huddling to decide on the next step," Bennett said.
It will happen, Borba predicted. "I fully expect someone will appeal the decision of the City Council to the Superior Court," said Borba, who has said he will be a candidate for the council in November. He said he would support such a lawsuit.
Mackenzie on Thursday said the environmental impact report prepared for the project did not show it would significantly increase sales tax revenues for the city, because groceries are not taxed, or provide a "diverse array of jobs to city residents," as the general plan calls for.
Such benefits were among those the report cited as considerations that the council should take into account when deciding whether the project's benefits would outweigh its potential negative impacts.
If the report does not include actual evidence of those benefits, Mackenzie said, opponents may be able to challenge the council's decision in court.
"I personally believe that there are grounds for legal action to be taken in this matter," he said.
Other responses to the council vote might include a push for a citizen referendum to overturn the decision or a campaign in November's election to punish council members who voted for Wal-Mart, Bennett said.
Mayor Pam Stafford and Councilwoman Amie Breeze are up for re-election. Stafford has said she will run; Breeze has not yet announced. Wal-Mart's Stoner would not say whether the company expects or is preparing for a legal challenge.
While Wal-Mart had said it hoped to open the 32,000-square-foot grocery in 2012, Stoner was unwilling Thursday to confirm that. "We will just have to wait and see if the opposition does delay us in starting the expansion," she said.
Perhaps the only player in the Wal-Mart drama to have cleared its agenda is the city.
"The city has completed its work," said Interim City Manager John Dunn. "There's some more detailed plans to be prepared and submitted, but essentially the city has given its approval for proceeding."
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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100730/news/7301126
Wal-Mart Debate Heats Up: Hundreds show up at City Hall to Weigh In On Proposal To Add Grocery to Rohnert Park Store
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
July 30, 2010
by Paul Payne
A bid by Wal-Mart to open what would be Sonoma County's first Supercenter by adding a grocery to its Rohnert Park store was hanging in the balance late Thursday night as opponents and supporters argued their case before the City Council.
"The only way Wal-Mart could conceivably offer any monetary benefit to Rohnert Park would be by cannibalizing the economies of the surrounding communities," Healdsburg resident Robert Neuse said.
Thomas Thunderhorse, a Rohnert Park resident who described himself as a low-income senior, said the council's decision would have political consequences. "If this council votes for the expansion of Wal-Mart, it will show those people in need that you care for them," he said. "If you vote against it, you will be remembered by them."
As hundreds of people flooded City Hall, the world's biggest retailer called on the council to overturn the planning commission's rejection of its application. Commissioners had expressed concern about the impact on other grocery retailers and said the project would be inconsistent with a section of the city's general plan that calls for encouraging supermarkets to be "close to where people live."
Wal-Mart attorneys on Thursday argued that the commission and opponents were legally in the wrong. "The law does not require you to be consistent with every aspect of the general plan, it requires you to be in harmony with the general plan," said Miriam Montesinos, a San Francisco attorney representing the Bentonville, Ark.-based company.
"If you interpret those policies the way they are asking you to, basically you would have a mandatory prohibition on new development in Rohnert Park," she said.
Wal-Mart representatives also said that the expansion would allow the store to broaden the low-cost shopping alternative it offers residents of the city and surrounding area. "We've helped families stretch their dollar by providing access to a wide range of affordable, quality goods," said Angela Stoner, a Wal-Mart spokesman.
Opponents argued that the expansion would, among other ill effects, cause neighborhoods to decay by forcing competing businesses to go under. "It's going to change the nature of the north part of Rohnert Park, and we don't want it," said Nancy Atwell, a Rohnert Park resident who lives near the Mountain Shadows Shopping Center on Golf Course Drive.
The anchor tenant of that center, Pacific Market -- one of a three-store Sonoma County grocery chain -- is at risk of going out of business if the Wal-Mart expansion goes through, according to the environmental impact report prepared for the project. That, project opponents said, would drive other tenants of the center out of business, too.
"If this happens, Pacific Market will surely close, and it will be like a deck of cards with one after another beginning to close," said Steven King, a nearby resident. Before the meeting, a 10-piece band played bouncy tunes to rally opponents of the project, and Pacific Market employees offered deli sandwiches for free.
But once the proceedings got under way, the mood turned deadly serious.
Rohnert Park resident Suzanne Dewey said the council should overturn the commission's decision in order to support residents who voted for Measure E -- the half-cent sales tax measure city voters approved in June -- and are struggling to get by in a touch economy.
"Our residents voted to increase our taxes to help Rohnert Park, now we expect our City Council to help our residents gain more purchasing power," she said. Another Rohnert Park resident, John Knapp, said that Wal-Mart, because of its sheer size and business practices, undermines the nation's small-business backbone.
"When Wal-Marts move into a community, they suck the life out of it," Knapp said. "Mom-and-pop places built America, and Wal-Mart destroys them by sucking the prices so low nobody can compete."
Perhaps 250 people attended the special meeting, crowding the City Council chamber, the City Hall lobby where it was being televised, and outside the building, where it was being broadcast as well.
By 11 p.m., the crowd had not diminished. The argument was framed, often passionately, in several ways:
+As a battle to endorse American principles of free market competition and consumer choice;
+A referendum on the council's support of lower income residents;
+As a fight in support of an economy built more around local businesses than giant corporations;
As a choice between developing businesses and housing along the planned SMART line alongside Highway 101 or contributing to increased traffic and greenhouse gases by forcing people to drive farther to meet their shopping needs.
"I believe as Americans we need to extend to Wal-Mart the privilege of expanding as they want to do," said Bunny Kimball of Rohnert Park. "The decision you're making tonight is really a very major policy decision, and it's speaking of where your loyalty lies," said Jan Ogren, a Rohnert Park resident who said she wants to know that the city supports local businesses before moving hers there from Santa Rosa.
Crystal Roberts of Santa Rosa told the council: "Those that are opposed to it can probably very well afford to go to those other stores," mentioning Pacific Market, Raley's, Safeway and Oliver's Market.
Dennis Rosatti, executive director of Sonoma County Conservation Action, one of a loose coalition of activist groups opposing the project, said the expansion would hinder efforts to develop small businesses, affordable housing and bicycle and foot traffic along Highway 101 on the planned SMART route.
"The more you expand that site (Wal-Mart's Redwood Drive location) the less likely it will become that we can transform that site in the long haul," he said. The expanded store, as proposed, would be about 167,000 square feet. Most of the addition would be groceries, but some more general merchandise also would be sold, according to the company.
In its campaign for the support of the council and residents, Wal-Mart said the expansion would add 85 new full- or part-time jobs to its existing payroll of 300. Opponents, citing a study commissioned by Pacific Market and prepared by Sonoma State University's Center for Regional Economic Analysis, countered that those jobs would be low-wage jobs and that the expansion would cost between 105 and 211 jobs.
Staff Writer Jeremy Hay can be reached at 521-5212 and jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.
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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100718/OPINION/100719668/1307/opinion?Title=GUEST-OPINION-Wal-Mart-expansion-a-threat-to-transit-oriented-development
Wal-Mart Expansion: A Threat to Transit-Oriented Development
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Sunday, July 18, 2010
by Martin J. Bennett
The Rohnert Park Planning Commission unanimously denied a Wal-Mart proposal to enlarge its existing discount store into a supercenter that sells both groceries and general merchandise. Wal-Mart has appealed the decision to the city council.
The economic and environmental impacts of a supercenter will extend far beyond the City of Rohnert Park. All county residents should be concerned about this proposal. The controversy raises fundamental questions about future growth and the necessity for proactive city and regional planning to promote equitable and sustainable development.
Development in the county is inevitable. According to the Association of Bay Area Governments, the population of Sonoma County will increase by twenty-three percent over the next twenty years. In 2008, voters approved a landmark initiative to meet this challenge, creating the two-county SMART train that will run on tracks adjacent to Highway 101 from Cloverdale to Larkspur.
The build-out of the train system provides the opportunity for city-centered 'transit-oriented development' (TOD) around the fourteen SMART train stations--development that could accommodate ninety percent of the projected population growth.
TOD is densely-built, mixed-use development within one-half mile of transit stations, accessible by bike and foot, and with a variety of retail, office, and small businesses. Through land-use planning and public funding, municipalities can promote development near transit stations that includes good jobs paying family-supporting wages, affordable housing for all income groups, open space, and walkable neighborhoods.
The proposed 170,000 square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter located one-quarter mile from the site of the planned Rohnert Park SMART train station is a direct threat to such careful and appropriate planning.
The labor, environmental, and local business organizations opposing the Wal-Mart supercenter believe it undermines compact and equitable development in Rohnert Park and violates the city's general plan. The project undercuts transit-oriented development's efforts to reduce low-wage work, support local business, tackle global warming, and lay the foundation for a robust regional economy.
Nearly one third of the employees in the county are currently 'working poor' and do not earn self-sufficiency wages. According to the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development in 2008, two parents working full-time in Sonoma County must each earn $14.90 an hour or $62,940 a year to pay for food, housing, medical care, child care, and transportation.
Sonoma State economist Robert Eyler reports that the supercenter will contribute to job quality decline and increase the problem of working poverty. According to his analysis, the county will lose 105-211 jobs---mostly good jobs that pay hourly wages for full-time workers ranging from $17.67 per hour at Pacific Market to $23.36 at Raley's and Safeway. The Wal-Mart super center will employ 450 workers, and according to the company, the typical full-time worker at Wal-Mart earns $12.10 an hour.
With regard to global warming, the supercenter will have adverse effects on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. In order to comply with AB 32, a 2006 state legislative measure, all nine cities and the county have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions twenty-five percent by 2015. However, the Eyler report notes, Pacific Market will close if the supercenter is built, and its 8,000 customers will drive an extra 28,400 miles each week to shop for groceries.
Further, Stacy Mitchell, author of Big Box Swindle, reports that vehicle miles driven per customer will increase because a supercenter draws shoppers from a greater distance than a discount store. Indeed, since Wal-Mart's rapid expansion in the late 1970s, miles traveled per household to shop has skyrocketed by three hundred percent, while total household driving increased by seventy- five percent.
As for local business, there are sixty local suppliers that provide produce and merchandise to Pacific Market, and more than seventy supply Oliver's in Cotati. Wal-Mart suppliers, on the other hand, are nearly 100% national and global firms (and that means increased truck traffic into the county). The 'Go Local' movement has demonstrated that patronizing local businesses ensures that more dollars remain in the community. Studies by Civic Economics demonstrate that locally-owned firms produce two to three times more economic activity within the local economy than national chains ---including locally-retained profits, wages paid to local residents, purchases from local suppliers, and contributions to local nonprofits.
The Rohnert Park City Council should uphold the decision of the planning commission, reject the Wal-Mart supercenter, and refocus the city's planning process to promote sustainable economic development.
Martin J. Bennett teaches American history at Santa Rosa Junior College and serves as Co-Chair of the Living Wage Coalition. He is a board member of Sonoma County Conservation Action and the North Bay Labor Council.
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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100428/OPINION/100429478
The Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart's Plans for a Rohnert Park Store
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Closer to Home
April 28, 2010
The Wal-Mart in Rohnert Park wants to expand by 35,000 square feet primarily for the purpose of selling groceries. On April 22, the plan was rejected by the Planning Commission on a 4-0 vote.
By Robert Eyler
On the surface, the expansion of Rohnert Park's Wal-Mart into a supercenter is alluring.
This expansion adds a grocery component, and the Rohnert Park's City Council, which will soon review the plan, will likely focus on the assumed sales tax generation and job creation such an expansion will provide.
It is important to recognize that an expansion of mainly grocery items will not generate a large amount of additional sales tax revenue, and the assumed loss of Pacific Market could lead to fewer jobs, reduced tax revenues, less consumer choice and create a significant vacancy problem at Mountain Shadows Plaza.
The issue for Rohnert Park decision makers is whether the environmental impact report has adequately assessed the cost/benefits of this expansion. Our evaluation shows there will be many hidden costs.
The EIR included an economic analysis of how such an expansion would affect existing grocery stores in Rohnert Park, Cotati and south Santa Rosa. The EIR concluded that Pacific Market would close when Wal-Mart adds groceries. At the request of Pacific Market, I was asked to look at the EIR to determine if their assumptions and perceived benefits were sound.
Since the EIR states the Wal-Mart expansion will add 85 new full-time and part-time jobs, we felt it was important to also consider the potential for job losses. Our analysis concludes that between 105 and 211 jobs will be lost by local employers, and the quality of these jobs, in terms of pay and benefits, will also decline.
On the issue of selection, our analysis found that, except for Wal-Mart's private-label brands, almost all grocery products carried by Wal-Mart are available at existing grocery stores. However, because this expansion will close Pacific Market in Rohnert Park, and perhaps another grocery store, this will actually reduce product selection among Rohnert Park grocery stores as Pacific Market carries many unique products, including many locally produced goods.
Further, because Pacific Market is the only "anchor" tenant in the Mountain Shadows Plaza it is likely that other shops in the plaza will either fail or relocate to another center.
A key issue is whether there is currently an unmet demand (called "retail leakage") of grocery sales from the defined trade area of Rohnert Park, Cotati and south Santa Rosa. The EIR estimates the unmet demand for groceries totals $8.8 million. In reviewing the methodology used to support this assumption, we found several errors; when corrected, the conclusion is reversed from a "leakage" into an "injection" of $3.5 million. This means that most, if not all, of Wal-Mart's estimated increased sales following the expansion will come at the expense of existing local retailers, which will increase the potential for store closures.
Also, since food sales are typically non-taxable (except for cleaning aids and health and beauty products already carried at the existing Wal-Mart), and because the increase in Wal-Mart's sales will come from a transfer of sales at existing grocery stores, the Wal-Mart expansion will not generate any new sales tax dollars. In fact, to the extent Wal-Mart forces other retailers to lower prices in order to compete, there may actually be a net reduction in sales taxes.
The city's general plan has goals that call for Rohnert Park to "maintain land use patterns that maximize residents' accessibility to ... neighborhood shopping centers," and to "ensure that ... supermarkets are located close to where people live and facilitate access to these on foot or bicycle." Pacific Market, for example, operates in a true neighborhood (as opposed to regional) shopping center at a location that has existed since 1985. The closure of Pacific Market is contrary to these policies, as it will significantly increase grocery shopping travel time for residents within one mile of the store and preclude travel on foot or bicycle.
It is also inconsistent with Rohnert Park's general plan objectives that focus on preserving and protecting local firms and neighborhoods.
Wal-Mart's expansion is not a "go-local" strategy. There is a general belief that most projects are beneficial and retailers such as Wal-Mart provide economic stability to a community. This project will clearly have many specific and unintended consequences that will cancel out the perceived benefits.
Elected officials need to be fully informed about the consequences of this project.
Robert Eyler is chairman of the Economics Department and director of the Center for Regional Economic Analysis at Sonoma State University.
To download a copy of the report please click here.
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For fact sheets on Wal-Mart wages, health benefits, public subsidies provided to Wal-Mart workers, violations of labor and health and safety laws, opposition to unions, gender discrimination, demands on city police services, etc. please go to:
http://wakeupwalmart.com/
For recent reports on the community impacts of Wal-Mart and current information about local organizations and coalitions across the country engaged in 'site fights' against proposed Wal-Mart stores go to:
http://walmartwatch.com/
LIVING WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTY