Where do I begin?
1. We have three huge Walmart's within a 20 minute drive of our house already in adjacent communities. Now they want to put one on the edge of our town about 5 - 10 minute drive away.
2. The entire project is based on the assumption that everyone will drive to the Wal-Mart - they are installing a massive 2,000 car parking lot. What happens if the price of gas doubles or triples in 2 - 3 years? Will people still drive? How sustainable over a 20+ year horizon is this sort of development?
3. The secondary roads that are in the area will become completely backed up with traffic. It's already moderately heavy in the area, but still flowing well.
4. The land, once rich farmland where the project is, was desginated for a high-income office park. Wal- Mart was able finangle a zoning change to their needs, so now this massive parcel of land will become a giant parking lot with low-income minimum-wage jobs adjacent
5. Within a 5 minute walk or bike ride of my house( note I do not have to use my car fior much) are all the services and stores that I want/need. I am concerned for these stores and shops livelyhood. If some of them go out of business, then I and many others will have to use cars to shop for basic needs and other stuff. I thought this was supposed to be about using the car less not more!!
6. Mid-way through the planning Wal Mart wanted to have the zoning changed again. Now they wanted to ad a Grocery store. The town of 35,000 is already served by 5 great grocery stores, that I note are never really busy and seem to be doing fine. I am concerned about their lively hood and why we need a 6th huge, Wal Mart sized grocery store.
Need more reasons?
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog