City Beat: Wal-Mart ekes out rezoning approval

Passions ran high at the Feb. 25 Springfield City Council meeting where council narrowly approved Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s rezoning request near the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Grand Street with a 5-4 vote.

A group of attendees, many wearing anti-Wal-Mart shirts, was vocal in its opposition to the plans, at times applauding those who spoke against the zoning proposal, as well as murmuring discontent and speaking out of turn when support surfaced. Police escorted one speaker, Midge Potts, from the meeting following an outburst.

The vote allows Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart to move forward on a fifth Neighborhood Market in town. The megaretailer sought rezoning of 6 acres at 444 W. Grand St. and 427–515 W. Normal St. to a general retail district with a conditional overlay district from residential high density and residential single family. 

At the meeting, a public hearing was held on the amendment to the plan that creates a no-build zone on 1.8 acres on the western half of the current Calvary Temple/Life 360 church property.

Lance Brown, former executive director of Urban Districts Alliance, was one of five speakers opposed to the market he said would kill downtown.

“It’s going to be green all right,” Brown said, referring to the no-build zone. “It’s going to suck the green right out of our downtown.”

Council members disagreed about the impact a new 41,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market would have on the neighborhood and the downtown area.

Council members Jan Fisk, Jerry Compton, John Rush, Jeff Seifried and Mayor Bob Stephens voted in favor of the zoning change, while Cindy Rushefsky, Doug Burlison, Mike Carroll and Scott Bailes stood opposed.

Compton said the change was consistent with the city’s economic development policy and a general retail designation was appropriate for the area.

Bailes said council members had a duty to promote the public interest, and construction of a 10th Wal-Mart store would cause congestion and pull jobs away from local grocers. Officials of locally owned Price Cutter had mounted a campaign against Wal-Mart’s plans. Price Cutter CEO Erick Taylor did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

“There are no new jobs. A store will open; a store will close,” Bailes said. “Four (Wal-Mart) stores opened last year, and (the city’s) sales tax revenue is down. We have to stop saying it’s new jobs and new taxes.”

Burlison cited physicians’ Hippocratic oath, saying he couldn’t approve the zoning change because he thought it would cause harm to the city.

Rushefsky said just prior to the vote that traffic concerns were one of the key reasons she could not support the proposal.

“I am very familiar with the Campbell and Grand Street intersection. I travel it frequently,” Rushefsky said. “I don’t need a paid expert or a traffic study to tell me that if that market goes in it will substantially impact the way people move in that intersection.”

She also said she didn’t want Springfield to become a company town and Wal-Mart to become its company store.

Rush said the market would better serve the area than a dilapidated church and a long-vacant Pizza Hut site.

“Would the community benefit more from the market or the status quo? The current situation seems untenable from the standpoint of any residential construction or demolition during the next five years,” Rush said, referencing the church pastor’s Feb. 11 estimate that it could take five to 10 years for the congregation to raise the money for demolition. 

Stephens said the city shouldn’t stand in the way of Wal-Mart’s plans just because it’s Wal-Mart.

“We have a willing buyer and a willing seller. My question is, ‘Why should government interfere with that?’” Stephens said. “If you look at this property, if a church had not gone there, it would probably have been zoned general retail already.”

After the vote, Wal-Mart Media Director Daniel Morales said no timeline had been established for the start of construction, but the company is working toward a fall 2014 store opening. “We believe this new store will be a solution for those who are looking for a job or want access to fresh affordable food,” Morales said via email. “We look forward to continue to listen and work with local leaders.”

Stand Up to Wal-Mart, a group opposed to the center city market, is considering collecting the 1,787 signatures needed to file for a referendum to repeal council’s rezoning decision, according to its Facebook page. If the group obtains signatures from 10 percent of the registered voters who participated in the last general municipal election by March 27, city charter states council would have to repeal its decision or send the measure to voters.

Fair bonds

A pair of bills introduced at the Feb. 25 meeting would allow the city to issue special obligation bonds to repay a $497,000 loan on the Ozarks Empire Fairgrounds Center Hall in order to cut the monthly lease payments for the Greene County Agricultural and Mechanical Society of Springfield.

The proposal, requested by the Greene County society that manages the property, would cut in half the $10,000 monthly loan payments, according to Tom Kissee, president of the society’s board of directors.

“Certainly, this would help our operating revenue and would allow us to improve and maintain our facilities,” Kissee said, noting the fairgrounds hosts more than 80 events a year.

Springfield Finance Director Mary Mannix Decker said the city has submitted several proposals to area banks, and she expects to have the terms on issuing special obligation bonds at the bills’ second readings March 11. Financial terms would be formally introduced to council around the end of March should council approve the bills now under consideration, Decker said.