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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Communities Act to Limit or Ban Mega-Stores, Sprawl |
Current rating: 0 |
by Stacy Mitchell, ILSR
(No verified email address) |
05 Aug 2001
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Communities across the U.S. are acting to limit or ban maega-stores that create sprawl and undermine local businesses while they suck money out of communities. This undermining of local economies cancels most of the claimed economic advantages claimed by proponents of these developments, leaving communities to struggle with declining tax bases and low-wage jobs as locally-owned enterprises are forced out of business. ML |
BELFAST, MAINE VOTERS OUTLAW BIG BOX STORES
In June, residents of Belfast, Maine voted 2-to-1 to ban retail stores larger than 75,000 square feet. They also elected two big box opponents to the City Council by substantial margins.
Belfast, located in the fast-growing mid-coast region about two and a half hours north of Portland, has a population of 6,400. It\'s 18th century downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The debate over big box stores began last spring when Wal-Mart optioned land to build a 160,000 square foot supercenter in a hayfield on the outskirts of town. The City Council, by a 3-2 vote, immediately enacted a moratorium on commercial development larger than 25,000 square feet. The mayor and three city councilors who favored the moratorium and scheduled the referendum endured heavy criticism for their \"anti-growth\" position.
In the end, however, voters endorsed the council\'s move. \"It’s a vindication of the referendum and moratorium,\" Mayor Michael Hurley told the Maine Times. The moratorium enabled the community to engage in \"an incredibly valuable debate across kitchen tables, in coffee shops, on the street corner, in barbershops, in the co-op. People learned a lot about our economy and about the predatory practices\" of big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
Driving the debate and public education campaign was a grassroots group known as Belfast First. In letters to the editor, public meetings, and printed materials, the group argued that large-scale chain stores would undermine Belfast\'s small town feel and sense of community. Their campaign apparently moved many voters; informal surveys several months before the referendum suggested that about 60 percent favored Wal-Mart and other big box stores.
According to the mayor, Belfast First\'s greatest achievement was convincing several prominent community leaders to appear in a full-page newspaper ad in support of outlawing big boxes. The participants were not only well-known, but native to Belfast, a fact that helped eliminate the perception that big box opponents were all newcomers to the area. Natives vs. newcomers has been a fault-line in Belfast politics since the 1960s and 1970s, when many hippies, artists, and back-to-the-land folks settled in the community.
The vote made Belfast the first community in Maine to ban big box stores. Wal-Mart is working to build about half a dozen new supercenters in Maine and has encountered organized opposition in several communities.
Belfast First relied on the national organization Sprawl-Busters
¨ (http://www.sprawl-busters.com)
in developing and organizing its campaign. -- Examples of local ordinances that impose a size cap on retail development can be found under the Retail Section of the New Rules web site at http://www.newrules.org/retail/size.html
For more news on supercenter opposition in Maine, see Sprawl-Busters NewsFlash (http://www.sprawl-busters.com/newsflash.html)
and back issues of this Bulletin (http://www.newrules.org/hta/index.htm).
MORE TOWNS LIMIT STORE SIZE
The number of communities that prohibit large retail stores continues to grow.
For a visual depiction and overview of various retail store sizes, see:
http://www.newrules.org/retail/howbigisbig.html
In order \"to protect residents and visitors from the perils of regional, large format, mega-style commercial development,\" the town of Nags Head, North Carolina banned stores larger than 50,000 square feet in July. Among the perils cited in the new ordinance were increased traffic congestion, reduced air quality, increased noise, and loss of community character and identity.
The Town Commission unanimously supported the ordinance, although some commissioners had favored a lower limit of 20,000 square feet. Mayor George Farah told the newspaper that big-box stores \"suck the economy right out of communities.\" Nags Head has no big box stores.
The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico also adopted a retail size cap last month. The ordinance limits retail stores throughout the city to no more than 150,000 square feet, a threshold that will keep out Wal-Mart\'s 200,000 square foot \"supercenters,\" but still allow many big box retailers, such as Office Max and Home Depot, to build. Several council members unsuccessfully pressed for a lower threshold. Santa Fe is already home to a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sam\'s Club, and Target.
In addition to the cap, the ordinance sets design standards for stores over 30,000 square feet. It also requires that developments with a single tenant larger than 75,000 square feet set aside at least 25 percent of their total retail space for stores smaller than 30,000 square feet.
San Luis Obispo, California is also moving towards a size limit on retail development. In July, the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to prohibit stores larger than 110,000 square feet. The ordinance must be approved by the City Council before becoming law. In addition to limiting retail size, the ordinance would require that proposals for stores larger than 60,000 square feet obtain a special use permit. Approval would hinge on whether the developer can demonstrate that the store 1) will serve the community, 2) needs to be that large due to the type of business, 3) doesn\'t conflict with the scale of surrounding uses, and 4) adheres to new design standards.
In Arizona, the Coconino County Planning & Zoning Commission recently voted to bar stores over 80,000 square feet and require a conditional use permit for those over 25,000 square feet. The ordinance now goes to the County Board of Supervisors for final approval. Flagstaff, the largest city within Coconino County, is also examining the impact of big box retail stores.
-- Examples of size caps can be found under the Retail Section of the New Rules web site at http://www.newrules.org/retail/size.html.
This originally appeared in The Home Town Advantage Bulletin (http://www.newrules.org/hta/index.htm), a bimonthly email newsletter from the New Rules Project (http://www.newrules.org) of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. |
See also:
http://www.ilsr.org
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