Activist targets retail development sprawl

by Clarissa A. French

SBJ Staff

Springfield's moratorium on south side development is nothing new to sprawl-buster Al Norman, who says efforts to control rapid and large-scale commercial development are on the rise nationwide.

Norman is an activist, consultant and author of the book "Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart: How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl in Your Home Town," released in July.

It is not available at a Wal-Mart near you.

Norman is acknowledged as a leader in the "big box backlash," in which more and more communities are saying no to superstore development and other "LULUs," or locally undesirable land uses.

He was in Springfield Nov. 13 to deliver his anti-sprawl message, "Community Growth: Wisdom or Regret?" to an audience of 40 to 50 local residents. Among those attending were center city business owners and residents of the neighborhoods near Blackman Road and Sunshine, where Wal-Mart has tried and failed to develop a third supercenter.

According to Aleta Dyer, a neighbor of the proposed site, a Wal-Mart real estate representative recently gave residents official notice that the retailer has purchased land at Blackman and Sunshine.

Part of the stated reason for the purchase was to keep out competition, Dyer said, but neighbors have no illusions about Wal-Mart's ultimate plans.

Their expectation, she said, is that Wal-Mart will wait until the intersection improvements at Sunshine and Highway 65 are nearing completion, then push for development. If that happens, Dyer said, the traffic generated by Wal-Mart will eliminate the benefits of the improvements.

"We'd end up getting nothing in terms of relief from traffic congestion," Dyer said, at a cost of millions to taxpayers.

Dyer said individual neighborhoods were instrumental in bringing Norman to the city. His visit was funded by private contributions.

According to Norman, the goals of sprawl-busting are to preserve cities' individuality, aesthetics, central business districts, small business viability and quality of life, while preventing the traffic problems, dropping residential property values and business closures that Norman says are typical side effects of big-box retail development.

Norman got his start as a sprawl-buster when he and other residents stopped Wal-Mart from locating a 120,000-square-foot supercenter in their hometown of Greenfield, Mass. A key weapon in the battle was an economic impact study that showed "by its fifth year, Wal-Mart would control 80 percent of retail sales," in the community, and "239,000 square feet of stores would close," Norman said.

The study also debunked Wal-Mart's claim of job creation.While Wal-Mart said it would create more than 120 jobs, after subtracting jobs eliminated by Wal-Mart, the net gain was 29 jobs, Norman said.

While Wal-Mart is Norman's primary target, he said other big-box developments create the same problems.

Big box retailers have four sources of sales, Norman said. First is population or income growth. Second is reduction in leakage, that is, people who previously traveled elsewhere to shop. Third is regional sales from surrounding areas. And fourth is transferred sales, or "money from other people's cash registers."

Norman said Wal-Mart plans to open another 200 stores in the next year, not counting supercenters or Sam's Clubs. Home Depot has announced it will double its number of stores, now 800, by 2002. Target is building 70 new stores each year.

However, these retailers are finding it harder to locate their stores where they want them, in part because of grassroots efforts like that in Greenfield.

According to Norman, communities are taking action with caps on building size, moratoriums on development, zoning bans that limit development to neighborhood commercial rather than regional commercial, design standards requiring buildings complement the built environment and major development review guidelines, including studies of economic impact on public revenues.

"Ohio is passing zoning laws that say if you're going to rezone property, the rezoning has to pass a general citywide vote and pass in the ward where the property is located," Norman said.

The big issue is home rule, he said "the community's right to say no."

Springfield has learned with the Sunshine and Blackman Road proposal that it isn't easy to say no to Wal-Mart. Here, as in other cities, Wal-Mart has threatened to sue the city for not allowing it to build where it wants.

In other cases, Wal-Mart has threatened to leave altogether if not allowed to expand as it wished, Norman said. When Taos, N.M., passed an ordinance that limited developments to less than 100,000 square feet, Wal-Mart, which wanted to build a supercenter, threatened to close its existing store in Taos and move across the border, he said.

For smaller towns, it can be a choice between agreeing with Wal-Mart's plans or watching Wal-Mart, and a huge chunk of sales tax revenue, move up the road to another community. In any case, Wal-Mart is historically given to frequent relocations.

"Wal-Mart talks about jobs and sales tax revenues when it comes to town," Norman said, but what it doesn't talk about is its tendency to relocate and the impact that has on small communities.

Norman cited the case of Warr Acres, Okla., where the city budget was cut by 25 percent when Wal-Mart decided to close up shop and move elsewhere.

To date, Norman said, Wal-Mart has left 333 abandoned stores in its wake nationwide, comprising 20 million square feet of space. In Missouri, there are 13 such abandoned sites, comprising 649,360 square feet, Norman said.

The majority of these sites are not owned by Wal-Mart but are leased from developers, Norman added. Built to suit Wal-Mart, these spaces don't appeal to other users, he said, adding, "They would make great jet propulsion laboratories."