While Albuquerque, New Mexico has its hands full fighting off another Wal-Mart supercenter, just twenty minutes to the east, in the small town of Edgewood, New Mexico (pop. 3,200) residents are fighting the same battle against the same corporation. This retail proposal is so big, it will push Edgewood over the edge into real suburban headaches. Here’s the latest report from the battle lines in Edgewood: “We have a group of homeowners and workers in the town of Edgewood that have organized because our town council voted to allow a large (50 acre) commercial zone in a residential area. The developer is intending to put a Wal-Mart supercenter (200,000 s.f), plus a Home Depot at 130,000 s.f., a 43,000 s.f.. strip mall, 2 restaurants, and 3 or 4 other pad sites. This will increase the traffic flow at a minimum more than 4 times what we now have. This route is the only way in and out of all of the neighborhoods behind it, yet will generate over 21,000 cars per day in addition to the current 8,000 we now have. It also is more than double the amount of retail space we now have in the town, which will shift the shopping patterns away from the current locations. In short, it will be a mess. One lawsuit has been filed because of substantial evidence that the town council vote was fraudulent, arbitrary, and capricious. Additionally, the town violated 6 different provisions in the Open Meetings Act and Inspection of Public Records Act. All of these violations are in direct relation to this commercial development. The Attorney General’s office is already looking into the Town’s repeated violations before our complaint was submitted. We submitted our complaint to the AG on Aug. 29 and they already have an attorney working on it as of Sept. 1. The town was notified of these violations on Sept. 1 and will be receiving notice of a civil suit in 15 days. We all pitched in to get some money together and find a good lawyer, Josh Simms, who helped with the Tijeras, New Mexico Wak-Mart battle. Simms has filed the paperwork for us. We need to get the surrounding communities involved in this battle as they don’t realize the scale of this development. We all fought to keep Wal-Mart out of Tijeras as the size was just insane for the area. Now we need the help of those communities. Sandia Park, Cedar Crest, Tijeras, Moriarty, Estancia and Edgewood will all be changed if we allow a development of this size to set up here.”
For local contacts in the Edgewood battle, contact [email protected]. I will never forget the evening residents in Tijeras stood out in the rain in front of Town Hall chanting: “One, two, three, four, we don’t want your lousy store.” Wal-Mart never did get aproved in Tijeras.
