The Cobb County, Georgia, Planning Commission has unanimously rejected expansion plans submitted by Wal-Mart. The decision now goes to the Cobb County Commissioners. The Planning Commissioners realized that Wal-Mart may not invest money to renovate its existing discount store if it cannot be expanded into a supercenter — bugt they rejected the add-on anyway. “Be aware that if Wal-Mart does leave, it can take a long time for something to come back in,” one Planning Commissioner told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. After the original Wal-Mart opened, a Cub Food store next to it closed down. Wal-Mart’s proposed expansion would add about 50,000 s.f. to its existing store, to add on a grocery store and expanded garden center. The expanded store would be roughly 170,000 s.f Under pressure from neighbors, the retailer agreed to expand the store on the side away from homes, and to enclose its truck bays to cut down on noise. The company also offered to build a wall to buffer noise, and to “take care of lighting and litter issues,” the newspaper said. But the neighbors remained firm, and stated a bigger store “would be simply too big for its location.” The shopping center where Wal-Mart built its first store in 1983 was supposed to be for neighborhood shopping, not a regional superstore. Members of the East Cobb Civic Association, who opposed the store, said that at its current size the Wal-Mart is already too large. Stephanie Teach, whose back yard faces the store, told the commissioners, “The current operations of the store now show a lack of concern for the community.” Responding to the threat from Wal-Mart that they will close the existing store if they are not allowed to expand, Teach noted, “If they can’t do that, then we agree — they should leave because we don’t want to be bullied.” A Wal-Mart spokesman complained, “We’ve been working with the East Cobb Civic Association for six months and we did concede a lot. We are doing everything we can to meet their concerns and we are still meeting opposition.”
Obviously, Wal-Mart is still meeting opposition because it has not really listened to what neighbors want. They don’t mind the existing Wal-Mart continuing its business, even though the existing store has disrupted their lives. What they object to is a larger intrusion into their lives. For more stories about what it’s like to have a Wal-Mart supercenter in your backyard, order “The Case Against Wal-Mart” from this website. (It is not possible, by the way, to buffer a neighborhood from the noise, the lights, and the trucks at a supercenter.)
