Sprawl-Busters in Salt Lake City, Utah are neck-deep in Home Depots. They have two Home Depots within six miles of a third proposed site. Here is their report: “We received word of Home Depot’s intention to build a store in our neighborhood 12 days before a zoning hearing was to take place. The plan would allow the rezoning of 7 acres required for the project.The other acres (4-14 more acres — we have not been getting consistant numbers on this) are already zoned commercial. Our community is residential bordered by commercial. The commercial businesses around us are small furniture stores, flower shops nurseries and the like. ?? We managed to gather enough neighborhood support to force the zoning commission to delay their decision for one month. In the interim we are attempting to gather traffic, economic impact and crime information. It is clear to us that our county government is “on board” for this project. The traffic engineer has massaged her data to make a fit for the development. The store will be 108,000 sf. There will be only two entrances — one of which will be a right in-right out. The other entrance is on a major thoroughfare – 40 mph + traffic, 20,000 cars/day. The engineer says no light will be necessary. A second problem: there are several small residential roads by a nearby intersection which will be subjected to cut-through traffic as congestion occurs at that intersection. The county engineer has so far ignored a directive from the commissioners to address this issue. ?? Needless to say we are opposed to this development in our neighborhood not only because of the negative impact on our quality of life, but because it will eventually vaporize our local businesses. We plan to have our own engineers refute the county engineer, get economic impact studies from the University of Utah showing a net zero sum for these developments, start a petition drive and get local businesses on board to oppose it. Surprisingly it is a hard sell even to similar businesses within a few blocks of the proposed HD. The assumption is that more traffic equates to better business even if HD is a direct competitor. ?? Even though the next hearing is a week away we are already getting the word that the rezone will be recommended for approval, so we will probably have to go to the next level which is try to get our county council not to approve it. We will realistically have about another month before the proposal comes before these county officials. ?? Some of the larger businesses in the area may help us with legal expertise and costs – we hope. This development will straddle two known fault lines with a potential of 7.5 earthquake. We understand that if HD sites their store 30ft from these fault lines the county will have no objection.?? We have been hearing statistics like 80% of nurseries within a 2 mile radius will go out of business.”
For more background on the Salt Lake Home Depot infestation, contact Helen Carney at:[email protected].
