Walmart is trying to bully itself a Super Walmart into our little town, even though there is a Walmart 12 miles north. Our city council turned 'em down flat last night. (Note the threatening attitude of the Walmart 'representative')
Let the games begin.
-1 VOTE STALLS PROJECT BEFORE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Atascadero council denies Wal-Marts bid to proceed
The applicants may decide to pursue a citywide ballot initiative for their north-end retail project
By Stephen Curran
Wal-Mart supporters and opponents wave signs in silence as the Atascadero City Council debates Monday whether to accept the retailers application for a Supercenter and a developers application for an adjacent shopping center.
TRIBUNE PHOTO BY DAVID MIDDLECAMP
Wal-Mart supporters and opponents wave signs in silence as the Atascadero City Council debates Monday whether to accept the retailers application for a Supercenter and a developers application for an adjacent shopping center.
Click any image to enlarge.
Wal-Mart and The Rottman Group submitted plans for this store to anchor a north Atascadero shopping center.
Wal-Mart and developer The Rottman Group might turn to a ballot initiative after Monday nights defeat before the Atascadero City Council.
The council debated for 90 minutes before voting 4-1 to order staffers to shelve the companies applications for a 195,000-square-foot Supercenter and adjacent shopping center at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real. Councilman Tom OMalley dissented.
Mayor George Luna said he was concerned that the large-scale project exceeded the 150,000-square-foot limit spelled out for that corner in the citys General Plan Atascaderos blueprint for regulating development.
Further studying the issue, Luna said, would merely delay what he said were council members inevitable votes.
I dont see the reason for getting more information on a store I would never vote for, he said of the proposal before the council.
Mondays decision came less than a week after council members sat through six hours of public comment aimed at swaying what residents on both sides of the bitter debate said was a critical vote for the city. They decided at 2 a.m. Wednesday to postpone the vote.
Aaron Rios, a Wal-Mart spokesman who attended the meeting, said the company plans to discuss the vote and has not decided whether it would proceed with a project. He and Rottman representatives have said they could consider putting the development to a citywide ballot initiative.
Rios called the councils decision another delay tactic.We need to evaluate whether (the city) is working as openly with us as we are with them, Rios added.
Debate over the planned development has divided many in Atascadero for nearly two years. The controversy became a key issue in last Novembers council election, pitting those who advocated greater scrutiny for commercial interests against those who claimed city leadership was already too hard on area businesses.
Critics have said the 335,000-square-foot retail plaza is too large for the North County city and would force independently owned businesses to close shop.
Supporters, meanwhile, claim it would help fund municipal services endangered by the Atascaderos lagging sales tax revenue.
A survey conducted in August and paid for by Wal-Mart, Rottman and the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce found that 56 percent of the 301 registered voters surveyed favored the project and that 38 percent opposed the plans.
Representatives for the Atascadero Police Association and Atascadero Professional Firefighters Association last week urged the council to allow the environmental report to proceed.
Doing so, they said, would allow them to determine whether the development would produce enough sales tax revenue to pay for the additional personnel needed to patrol the area.
Tom Comar, a spokesman and co-founder for locally based Oppose Wal-Mart, said his group does not plan to abandon its efforts and would closely monitor the companies next moves.
Its not a victory, Comar said. Its a success.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/179448.html