SR Wal-Mart store facing final city hurdle

<p>Wal-Mart's third Sonoma County store -- this one in Santa Rosa -- could begin construction this year if it clears its last municipal hurdle Tuesday.</p><p>Indications are it will.</p><p>The proposal "already has been vetted through all the city's committee processes and while there might be some tinkering, it appears the project will proceed," Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard said.</p><p>The council approved Wal-Mart's environmental study and use permit last November, leaving only design plans dealing with parking, landscaping and other architectural issues for the 106,000 square-foot store to be resolved.</p><p>The Design Review Board on May 17 approved Wal-Mart's final design on a 4-1 vote.</p><p>But Tuesday the council will be asked to overturn that decision and return the project to the board for further analysis.</p><p>Attorney William Klopper of Davis and Sebastopol consultant Scot Stegeman, representing individuals, social justice and union groups opposed to Wal-Mart's labor and environmental practices, filed the appeal, claiming the design board's review was flawed on several fronts.</p><p>Klopper also filed a lawsuit in December in Sonoma County Superior Court challenging Santa Rosa's approval of what he contends was a faulty environmental study on Wal-Mart.</p><p>While the lawsuit isn't set to be heard until Feb. 8, the plaintiffs have not sought an injunction to block Wal-Mart from starting construction.</p><p>Wal-Mart officials had planned to begin this summer. Phone calls seeking Wal-Mart's revised schedule were not returned Thursday or Friday.</p><p>The Bentonville, Ark.-based company is the world's largest retailer, operating 6,200 outlets, including 3,800 in the United States, one each in Windsor and Rohnert Park, and employing more than 1.9 million people.</p><p>Its revenues this year are expected to exceed $350 billion.</p><p>Deputy Community Development Director Marie Meredith said design approval is the last step before Wal-Mart can begin construction.</p><p>Before Wal-Mart can begin building it must demolish old home-improvement and drug stores that its building will replace in the 16-acre Stony Point Plaza Shopping Center.</p><p>Wal-Mart's design still needs council approval and three of the council's seven members -- Susan Gorin, Veronica Jacobi and Carol Dean -- have taken office since the council voted 5-2 in November to support Wal-Mart's use permit.</p><p>Both Gorin and Jacobi, in their pre-election comments, said they opposed Wal-Mart.</p><p>But Meredith, noting the November council vote, said that is no longer the issue.</p><p>"It's already been decided there will be a Wal-Mart, now what's left is to decide what it will look like," she said.</p><p>Among the four council members who participated in the 5-2 vote, only John Sawyer opposed Wal-Mart. Council members Lee Pierce, Jane Bender and Blanchard supported it.</p><p>Sawyer, however, said last week his vote in November doesn't foreshadow what he might do Tuesday.</p><p>While he contends Wal-Mart is "not a healthy addition to our community" because of what he sees as its predatory business practices, that issue has been decided.</p><p>"The council decided to welcome them," he said. "My responsibility now is to listen to our Design Review Board's responses and make a decision solely based on its design. This is just about the building."</p><p>Dean, the most recent addition to the council, doesn't shop at Wal-Mart for some of the same reasons cited by Sawyer.</p><p>But many of her neighbors in her mixed-income West End neighborhood do.</p><p>"I see bags come out of trunks of cars of people struggling to get along, some are from Wal-Mart, some from Kmart, some from Target," she said.</p><p>"I understand labor's and environmentalists' positions on Wal-Mart but we can't dictate where people shop," she said. "This is America. If you believe Wal-Mart is a bad entity, don't shop there."</p><p>Dean's position echoed that of Pierce, who in an impassioned statement in January blasted those who filed the lawsuit and said it smacked of elitism because it came at the expense of the lower-income Roseland area.</p><p>"It's one thing for someone living in a nice warm home with bank accounts set aside for their kids to go to colleges and it's another thing for someone who doesn't have the luxury to even afford the basics," he said.</p><p>The debate over Wal-Mart's project has been ongoing since May 2004 when it first submitted plans to build in the Stony Point Road center.</p><p>Since then, the battle has been waged on two fronts.</p><p>Supporters point to the 300 jobs and the $500,000 in annual sales tax revenue it's projected to generate, the revitalization it could spur in the mostly vacant Stony Point Plaza and the lower prices it would bring to the economically-depressed southwest area as some of the store's key benefits.</p><p>Opponents, however, say the jobs Wal-Mart will generate will be at low-wages with scant benefits, that the company's predatory practices will drive competitors out of business, and that its Santa Rosa outlet will exacerbate traffic and noise problems.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.</p>